A final group of 130 kidnapped Nigerian schoolchildren were freed by the government on Sunday. They are expected to be reunited with their families in central Niger state on Monday. This ends a month-long ordeal that drew worldwide concern. Last month, unknown gunmen took around 215 schoolchildren and 12 teachers from St Mary’s Catholic school in the Papiri community of Niger state. This area lies west from the capital Abuja to Benin. Fifty children escaped soon after the abduction. Another 100 were freed on 7 December. The presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare posted on X on Sunday, “Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity.” The last group was freed near Nigeria's border with Benin, but how they were freed or who took them remains unknown. Kidnap-for-ransom cases are part of Nigeria's many security problems. Armed gangs roam the countryside in the north. Jihadists also operate with help from neighbors in the Sahel region. Nigeria's large rural areas are vulnerable, and security forces are stretched thin. The Papiri abduction was the second mass kidnapping in Nigeria last week and the second in Niger state in four years. In May 2021, 135 pupils were kidnapped from an Islamic seminary in the same state. The most famous mass abduction was in 2014 when over 200 schoolgirls were taken from Chibok in north-east Nigeria. This sparked a global campaign joined by stars like Michelle Obama and Elton John. According to SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based advisory, at least 4,722 people were kidnapped in Nigeria from July 2024 to June 2025. At least 762 were killed and about $1.66 million paid in ransom. Security has worsened so much that former US President Donald Trump threatened military action in Nigeria. The Trump administration labeled Nigeria as a country of special concern, citing “Christian genocide.” The Nigerian government rejects this label as too simple for the complex crisis.