Safe but scarred: Papiri schoolchildren return home as others remain captive

The 100 Nigerian schoolchildren abducted last month from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri have finally returned home after their release over the weekend, reuniting with anxious families who had endured weeks of fear and uncertainty. Yet the joy is tempered by deep anguish: more than 150 others, including teachers, remain in captivity.

Among those freed is Onyeka Chieme, who recounted the harrowing conditions inside the kidnappers’ camp — a place he feared he might never leave alive.

Onyeka Chieme, kidnapping survivor: "While we were there (kidnappers’ den), they had lots of children under their care, and the river (only source of water) where we drink from is the same place their wives and children go to do their laundry, and after doing their laundry, they will fetch the same water and feed their animals, and we are also given the same water to drink."

The attack on November 21 saw at least 303 students and 12 teachers seized by armed men in one of the largest school kidnappings Nigeria has witnessed since the 2014 Chibok abductions. About 50 children managed to escape shortly after the attack. The government has not disclosed how the weekend release was achieved, and it remains unclear whether a ransom — common in such cases — was paid.

For parents, the reunion is bittersweet. Onyeka’s father, Anthony Chieme, is still waiting for news of another child who was abducted and remains with the captors.

Anthony Chieme, parent of rescued child: "They should try and release my remaining child and others; I am not talking about only my child, but others also because it’s not only my child that’s in the bush. There are over 100 children still in captivity. I cannot say only my child be released."

Local residents say heavily armed criminal gangs — notorious for kidnapping travellers and schoolchildren for ransom — are behind the attack, although no group has officially claimed responsibility.

Despite the trauma, some parents say they are determined not to let fear rob their children of an education.

Precious Njikonye, mother of a rescued school child: “I still believe in education. They will still go back to school even more… We still have hope that our government can try and help us. They will work on it.”

In Papiri, the community is trying to return to normal life: residents move about their daily chores, men clean motorbikes in the dust-filled streets — small scenes of routine that stand in stark contrast to the crisis still unfolding in the forested hideouts where many children are held.

Nigeria has endured a series of mass school abductions since 2014. According to the Associated Press, at least 1,799 students have been kidnapped in the past decade, underscoring the growing threat armed gangs pose across the country’s northwest and central regions.

As families in Papiri embrace their returned children, their relief is overshadowed by one plea — that the government secures the release of every child still trapped in the bush.