TLTP
\nKATSINA
\nMore than 300 schoolboys kidnapped last week in an attack on their school in northwest Nigeria have arrived in the capital of Katsina state amid celebrations of their release.
\nTelevision pictures on Friday showed the boys, many of them wearing light green uniforms and clutching blankets, arriving on buses, looking weary but otherwise well.
\nThe boys were abducted last Friday after gunmen raided the all-boys Government Science Secondary School in Katsina\u2019s Kankara village and marched nearly 350 of them into the nearby Rugu forest. The Boko Haram armed group claimed responsibility for the abduction.
\nNone of the boys spoke as they walked from the bus in single file, flanked by soldiers, into a government building. The boys walked barefoot, some of them limping with blisters on their feet.
\nIt was not clear if all of the boys had been recovered in the rescue operation, but Katsina state\u2019s Governor Aminu Bello Masari told Idris on Thursday that all 344 boys had been released.
\nThe boys were moved to a camp where they will undergo medical tests and evaluation before a likely meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, according to Idris.
\nMeanwhile, a group of the boys\u2019 parents waited to be reunited with them in another part of town.
\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe what I heard until neighbours came to inform me that it\u2019s true,\u201d Hafsat Funtua, the mother of 16-year-old Hamza Naziru, said earlier in a phone interview.
\nShe said the moment she heard the news, she ran out of her house with joy \u201cnot knowing where to go\u201d before returning home to pray.
\nAnother parent, Husseini Ahmed, whose 14-year-old Mohammed Husseini was also among those abducted, expressed happiness and relief that he would soon be reunited with his son. \u201cWe are happy and anxiously expecting their return,\u201d he said.
\nThe kidnapping had gripped Nigeria and raised growing concerns and anger about insecurity and violence in the country\u2019s north.
\nIn an audio recording released on Tuesday, a man identifying himself as the leader of Boko Haram claimed the group was responsible for the abduction.
\nOn Thursday, dozens of protesters marched through the streets in the city of Katsina as #BringBackOurBoys trended on Nigerian social media.
\nThe details of how the boys were released are still unknown. Idris said the government officials are \u201crefusing to say anything about it\u201d. \u201cThey are insisting that no exchange of prisoners was done in exchange for the children, but a lot of people doubt that,\u201d he said.
\nCriminal gangs operating in northwest Nigeria have killed more than 1,100 people in the first half of 2020 alone, according to rights group Amnesty International.
\nIn the northeast, Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), have waged a 10-year rebellion estimated to have displaced about two million people and killed more than 30,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TLTP KATSINA More than 300 schoolboys kidnapped last week in an attack on their school in northwest Nigeria have arrived in the capital of Katsina state amid celebrations of their release. Television pictures on Friday showed the boys, many of them wearing light green uniforms and clutching blankets, arriving on buses, looking weary but otherwise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n