In one of the week’s most dramatic developments, Nigerian security forces rescued dozens of schoolchildren and teachers who had been held captive for over 50 days after gunmen attacked three schools in the southwestern state of Oyo.
The joint military, police, and intelligence operation concluded on Friday, resulting in the arrest of eight suspected militants and the killing of an unspecified number of others. President Bola Tinubu hailed the mission as a success that “ended the siege and standoff” and “brought relief to the entire nation.” The rescue marks a rare piece of good news in a country plagued by kidnapping-for-ransom, a crisis that has particularly targeted schools across Nigeria’s north and, increasingly, its southwest.
