Sawt Falasteen - 100 abducted Nigerian children handed over to state officials

The children -- many wearing football jerseys and girls in long robes -- were driven to the Niger State Government House in white buses escorted by a dozen military vans and armoured vehicles.

In late November 315 students and staff were kidnapped from St. Mary's co-educational boarding school in north-central Niger state, as the country buckled under a wave of mass abductions reminiscent of the infamous 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok.

Some 50 escaped immediately afterward, but the fate of the 165 others from St. Mary's thought to still be in captivity is still unclear.

Niger state Governor Umar Bago said during an address to students and officials "they will be safely delivered to them and very soon".

The children handed over Monday will undergo medical checks before they are reunited with their parents, the governor added.

Theresa Pamma, a UNICEF official, said "we all know that, for being over two weeks in captivity, those children certainly need some help," including mental health care.

Bago shook hands with some of the children and led them into a hall where the an emir and local officials were seated to receive them.

It was unclear how the students' release was secured.

- Kidnappers unknown -

According to a list of the released children seen by AFP, most of those freed are aged between 10 and 17 years. The school catered for children as young as nursery school age.

It is unclear who seized the children from their boarding school in the remote rural village of Papiri.

Though kidnappings for ransom are common as a way for criminals and armed groups to make quick cash, a spate of mass abductions in November put an uncomfortable spotlight on Nigeria's already grim security situation.

The country faces a long-running jihadist insurgency in the northeast, while armed "bandit" gangs attack and loot villages in the northwest.

In November, assailants across the country kidnapped two dozen Muslim schoolgirls, 38 church worshippers and a bride and her bridesmaids, with farmers, women and children also taken hostage.

The kidnappings came as Nigeria faces a diplomatic offensive from the United States, where President Donald Trump has alleged that mass killings of Christians have amounted to a "genocide".

The Nigerian government and independent analysts reject that framing, which has long been used by the Christian right in the United States and Europe.

The religiously diverse country of 230 million people is the scene of myriad conflicts that have killed both Christians and Muslims.

Though there was not a breakdown of the kidnapped pupil's religions, St. Mary's "accommodates Christians and Muslims" as students, Daniel Atori, a spokesman for the Christian Association of Nigeria in Niger state, told AFP Saturday.

US Representative Riley Moore, who has seized on accusations of the mistreatment of Christians, said on social media Monday he met with Nigerian security officials as part of a congressional delegation visit to the country.

The rescue of the 100 children is "a positive demonstration of the government's increasing response to the security situation", he said.

E.AbuRizq--SF-PST