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The Nigerian government has successfully negotiated the release of 100 schoolchildren who were kidnapped last month, as reported by local news outlets.
The children were taken from St. Mary’s School in Papiri, located in Niger state, on November 21. This development was shared by Channels Television on Sunday.
This news unfolds amid ongoing challenges faced by Christians in Nigeria, prompting former President Donald Trump to label the nation as a “country of particular concern.”
In a report by the BBC, it was noted that up to 303 children were initially abducted from the school, according to Mary Barron, the superior general of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles (OLA).
Photographic evidence from November 23, 2025, shows a classroom at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger state. (Ifeanyi Immanuel Bakwenye / AFP via Getty Images)
The nun said the students were “tiny,” and as young as 6 years old.
According to Barron, 50 of the students escaped over that weekend.
“They said they walked and walked, because they knew they couldn’t walk back to the school, so they just kept walking until they found something familiar,” she said.
Belongings are seen outside a student dormitory at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger state, on Nov. 23, 2025. (Ifeanyi Immanuel Bakwenye/AFP via Getty Images)
Two hundred fifty-three students and 12 teachers are currently in captivity. It is unclear how many will be held after the release goes through.
Soon after the kidnappings, Trump told Fox News Radio that the Nigerian government had “done nothing” to stop the killings.
“I’m really angry about it,” he said on Nov. 23. “What’s happening in Nigeria is a disgrace.”
At the time, War Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Nigerian national security advisor Nuhu Ribadu and discussed cutting off aid to Nigeria if it “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”
A signboard for St. Mary’s Private Catholic Secondary School stands at the entrance of the school in Papiri on Nov. 23, 2025. (Ifeanyi Immanuel Bakwenye/AFP via Getty Images)
“Hegseth emphasized the need for Nigeria to demonstrate commitment and take both urgent and enduring action to stop violence against Christians and conveyed the Department’s desire to work by, with, and through Nigeria to deter and degrade terrorists that threaten the United States,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
