More than 40 Nigerian schoolchildren and teachers abducted in Oyo state have been rescued after nearly two months in captivity, ending a kidnapping that unsettled a region long seen as safer than the country’s conflict-hit north.
Oyo Governor Seyi Makinde visited the freed students at a military hospital on Saturday, where officials said they were receiving treatment after their release was announced on Friday.
“They were happy to be out of captivity,” Makinde said after the visit, adding that some of the children remained frail and needed medical and psychological support.
The pupils and staff had been seized from three schools in Oyo’s Oriire local government area. Authorities blamed the abduction on militants from Ansaru, a Boko Haram splinter group known to operate in central Nigeria.
The army said the rescue followed operations involving intelligence agencies, police and local vigilante groups. It said security forces suffered “some casualties” during the operation, without giving further details.
The kidnapping drew national attention because it took place in southwest Nigeria, home to Lagos and to Oyo’s capital, Ibadan, a prominent education centre. Most mass school kidnappings in Nigeria have happened in the north, where armed groups have used students as leverage for ransom payments and other demands.
Senator Abdulfatai Buhari of Oyo state said the condition of the freed children was difficult to witness, noting that some of those taken were very young. Defence Minister Christopher Musa said last week that the kidnappers had tried to use the students as leverage with the government, which is holding some of their commanders. The abduction prompted protests, a teachers’ strike in Oyo and political criticism ahead of Nigeria’s January 2027 presidential election.
Makinde said family visits were being arranged, including for “a small girl in there that has been asking for her mother.”
