Remaining 130 abducted Nigerian students released

"The freedom of the schoolchildren followed a military-intelligence driven operation."

The students are among more than 300 pupils and 12 staff seized by gunmen from St ​Mary's Catholic boarding school ‌in Papiri village in the early hours of November 21.

Fifty of the children ​managed to escape at the time, the Christian Association ‍of Nigeria has previously said, while Nigeria's government said on December 8 that it had managed ​to rescue ​100 of those ​abducted.

The abduction caused outrage over worsening insecurity in northern Nigeria, where armed gangs frequently target schools for ransom. School kidnappings surged after Boko Haram militants abducted 276 girls from Chibok in 2014.