Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 130 schoolchildren who were taken at gunpoint from a Catholic school in November. The government says that no more staff and students are still being held.

"Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity," government spokesperson Sunday Dare said in a post on X.

In late November gunmen attacked St Mary's boarding school in the rural hamlet of Papiri, in north-central Niger state, kidnapping students and staff.

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The exact number of people kidnapped has been in dispute, and there has not yet been an official accounting of who was released and escaped.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said 315 students and staff were kidnapped.

Some 50 students escaped shortly after the attack, and the government secured the release of about 100 people at the start of December.

That would leave about 165 in captivity, though a statement from Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu at the time put the remaining people being held at 115.

A UN source told the AFP news agency that all those taken appeared to have been released, as dozens thought to have been kidnapped had managed to run off during the attack and make their way home.

The government has not given details of how it secured the release of the children. For past rescues, authorities likely paid ransoms, which is officially prohibited by law.

It has not been made public those responsible for the kidnappings, which came as part of what the UN has called a "surge in mass abductions" in November.

Kidnappings for ransom by armed groups have plagued Nigeria since the 2014 abduction of 276 school girls in the town of Chibok by Boko Haram jihadists.

(with AFP)