Fifteen schoolchildren kidnapped by gunmen earlier this week in Nigeria have been released unharmed following an operation by security services, a senior police officer said today.
"All the 15 schoolchildren that were abducted on Monday have now regained freedom. They were rescued by a combined team of army and police security services late last night in the forest of Ogwe-Asa in Abia state," police Commissioner Jonathan Johnson of Abia State said.
He said all the children were now in the southern town of Aba, where the youngsters were believed to have been held since gunmen hijacked their bus on the way to school.
"No arrests have been made yet and no ransom was paid to the best of my knowledge," Mr Johnson said.
Yesterday, hundreds of soldiers in armoured vehicles sealed off the town in lawless Abia state on the fringes of the Niger Delta in a major security sweep.
Kidnapping for ransom is relatively common in and around the Niger Delta, a deeply impoverished area despite being home to Africa's largest oil and gas industry.
However, the abduction of a large group of children, some of them as young as three, caused outrage. President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the kidnapping as "utterly callous and cruel".
Three French oil workers were kidnapped from a drilling supply ship last week, and police in nearby Rivers state say five women were kidnapped two weeks ago by a gang believed to be from Abia State. There has been no word on the fate of either group.
Reuters