Nigeria says kidnapped Catholic school pupils will return 'soon'

Nigeria's top security chief told school authorities on Monday that the hundreds of children kidnapped from a Catholic boarding school would be home "soon", a spokesperson said.

Armed gangs seized more than 300 teachers and staff at St. Mary's co-education school in north-central Nigeria on November 21, as the country battles a spate of mass abductions.

"The children are fine and will be back soon," national security adviser Nuhu Ribadu, was quoted as saying during a high-profile visit with school officials in the town of Kontagora, in Niger state.

"The children are where they are and will come back safely," Ribadu was quoted as saying by Daniel Atori, spokesperson for the bishop who heads the Catholic archdiocese that owns St. Mary's school.

Spate of abductions

The security chief did not offer further details on their current location or the status of government efforts to free them.

Previous kidnappings have been resolved via military action but also through negotiations and suspected ransom payments.

A spate of abductions in recent weeks has forced the issue into the spotlight, with hundreds of people kidnapped in November.

The same week as the St. Mary's attack, gunmen kidnapped 25 students – all Muslims – at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in neighbouring Kebbi state.

Fifty students return home

Fifty students from St. Marys have since escaped their captors. The students from Kebbi were released through what the governor called "non-kinetic" efforts.

Ribadu made his comments while visiting school officials, travelling with a government delegation that included the minister of humanitarian affairs and the director general of the secret police force known as the Department of State Services.