Nigerian security forces have rescued dozens of schoolchildren and their teachers who were abducted from three schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, ending a 56-day captivity that drew national outrage. The presidency announced on Friday that all the captives were freed in a coordinated operation involving the military, police, and intelligence services, with eight suspected kidnappers arrested and several others killed. No ransom was paid and no concessions were made, presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga said, despite the abductors’ demand for the release of a detained militant commander.

Authorities have not released a definitive tally of those rescued. The presidency initially referred to 46 abductees—39 pupils and seven teachers—while a military statement on Saturday put the number at 44. One teacher, Michael Oyedokun, was killed by his captors during the ordeal, and another teacher died during the initial attack on 15 May. The rescued victims, who appeared emaciated in footage released by the presidency, are receiving medical attention at an undisclosed hospital and will be handed over to the Oyo State government for reunification with their families, military officials said.

The operation, described by the army as intelligence-led and lasting more than a month, targeted the kidnappers’ logistics networks, informants, and hideouts within the Old Oyo National Park. It involved special forces from the army, navy, and air force, as well as the police, the Department of State Services, the National Intelligence Agency, the civil defence corps, and local vigilante groups. The military acknowledged that some security personnel were killed during the mission, without providing details. The kidnappers, identified by Nigerian authorities as members of the Ansaru faction of Boko Haram, had initially demanded the release of two detained commanders, a demand the government publicly rejected.

The abduction on 15 May—when gunmen stormed Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Community Grammar School, and L.A. Primary School in the Esiele and Yawota communities—was the first mass school kidnapping in Nigeria’s predominantly Christian southwest, a region that had largely been spared the wave of such attacks concentrated in the north. The incident prompted a strike by the state branch of the Nigeria Union of Teachers and protests in Ogbomoso, while the federal government dispatched a high-level delegation and approved the recruitment of 1,000 forest guards for Oyo State. The rescue has been welcomed across the political spectrum, with opposition figures and regional leaders commending the security forces, though some families, including that of the slain teacher, noted that their joy was incomplete. The arrested suspects remain in custody, and further operations are planned, the military said.