Lagos (AFP) - Dozens of schoolchildren kidnapped during a rare attack in southwestern Nigeria 56 days ago have been rescued, the presidency said Friday.

Gunmen who Nigeria’s army accused of being Boko Haram jihadists abducted 46 pupils and staff from three schools in the southwestern state of Oyo on May 15.

The attack fuelled fears of Islamist violence spreading into the country’s southwest.

The raid on schools in Esiele and Yawota – two agrarian communities that sit on the edge of the vast Old Oyo National Park – quickly became a hot-button issue, prompting protests, a month-long statewide teachers’ strike and high-profile condemnation.

“I am profoundly happy that our security forces successfully rescued the abducted pupils and teachers from Orire, Ogbomoso in Oyo State today after a military, police and intelligence-driven operation that neutralised some of the terrorists that perpetrated the evil act and the arrest of eight of them,” President Bola Tinubu said in a statement.

His spokesman Bayo Onanuga first broke the news on X in which he also posted pictures of some the children.

Southwest Nigeria has long been considered one of the safest regions in a country struggling with multiple security crises.

Kidnappings for ransom are an ongoing battle for authorities in Nigeria’s restive northern regions.

But mass abductions have been rare in the south.

Oyo is one of Nigeria’s most populous states, and its capital, Ibadan, is a major education hub.

Onanuga said the “terrorists” had demanded the release of one of their members who is being prosecuted by the authorities.

One of the teachers thanked Tinubu in a video shared by the president’s spokesman and said: “We understand your commitment to our safety and we appreciate all you did for us.”

She added: “Security operatives, …tried so much and that is why we are still alive right now.”

- ‘No quid pro quo’ -

Defence Minister Christopher Musa said this week that the kidnappers were trying to use the students as “leverage” with the Nigerian government, which is holding some of their commanders.

Musa said that the kidnappers had threatened to kill their hostages if security forces moved in on them.

It remains unclear how their release was secured but Onanuga said there “was no quid pro quo in the rescue”.

Oyo state governor Seyi Makinde said “our priority now is to ensure they are reunited with their families” and “support their rehabilitation”.

More than 40 other schoolchildren – some as young as two – were taken from their schools in northeast Borno state on the same day as the Oyo kidnapping. They are still in captivity.

Boko Haram has long used mass school kidnappings as a tool of terror, most notably in April 2014 when it abducted 276 schoolgirls from a secondary school in Chibok in northeastern Borno state.

A string of mass abductions in late 2025, including the kidnapping of two dozen schoolgirls in Kebbi state and the abduction of roughly 300 students and several teachers in Niger state, renewed international attention on Nigeria’s insecurity.