344 schoolboys released; many remain missing

More than 300 Nigerian schoolboys seized in a mass abduction claimed by Boko Haram experienced their first full day of freedom yesterday after a nearly week-long ordeal.

But relief at their survival mingled with concern that many others could still be captive, and the circumstances of their release remained unclear.

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Looking dirty, worn-out and distraught, and most of them without shoes, the boys were brought to the governor's offices in Katsina, the capital of Katsina state in northwestern Nigeria, after being released late Thursday.

The assault last Friday on a rural school in Kankara, carried out by gunmen arriving on motorbikes, was initially blamed on criminal gangs who have terrorised the region for years.

But on Tuesday Boko Haram, the brutal jihadist group behind the abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok in 2014, claimed responsibility.

Local officials announced late Thursday that 344 boys had been released and would spend the night in the protection of security agents.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had been left in the forest after negotiations between the authorities and the abductors, but gave no further details.

It remained unclear, though, if all the abducted schoolboys had been released, amid ongoing uncertainty over the number taken in the first place.

In an interview with state channel NTA, the governor added: "I think we have recovered most of the boys, it's not all of them."

In a video released by Boko Haram Thursday, a distressed teenager said he was among 520 students kidnapped.