Last Friday, 50 of the 315 children kidnapped by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria’s Niger state escaped.
The Christian Association of Nigeria said they had been reunited with their families.
A massive military-led search and rescue operation is underway for the remaining 265 children and the 12 teachers who were taken with them.
Authorities in several states in Nigeria have ordered schools closed following a mass kidnapping in Niger and another smaller-scale hostage incident in Kebbi State on Monday in which 20 students were kidnapped from a boarding school.
In another development, 38 people kidnapped from a church service in Kwara State last week were released on Sunday, the governor said.
Two people were killed in the attack on the Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku.
Many schools have been ordered closed in Kebbi, Niger, Katsina, Yobe and Kwara states.
News of the children’s escape brought welcome relief to families and a nation grappling with the fate of hundreds of students kidnapped in northwestern Nigeria.
According to a Christian group involved in the incident, the students managed to escape between Friday and Saturday in a brave and risky attempt to escape their kidnappers.
The students and teachers were transported from St Mary’s School in Papiri, Niger State. Previous reports said 303 students and 12 teachers were taken.
Their number surpasses the 276 people abducted during the infamous Chibok kidnapping in 2014.
Local police said armed men stormed into St Mary’s Cathedral around 2am (GMT) and kidnapped students staying there.
Niger Governor Mohamed Umaru Bongo announced on Saturday that all schools in the region would close, warning that now was not the time for blame games.
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Dominic Adamu, whose daughters are at school but was not taken with them, told the BBC: “Everyone is vulnerable… It’s a surprise to everyone.”
A distressed woman told the BBC through tears that her nephews, aged six and 13, had been kidnapped, adding: “I wish they would come home.”
The military, police and local vigilantes are searching for the children by combing nearby forests and remote routes believed to have been used by the gunmen.
Authorities in Niger state said St Mary’s School had ignored orders to close all boarding facilities despite intelligence warnings of an increased risk of attacks. The school did not comment on the claims.
Kidnapping people for ransom by criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, has become a major problem in many parts of Nigeria.
A ban on ransom payments was put in place to cut off the supply of funds to criminal organizations, but it had little effect.
On Monday, more than 20 female students, identified as Muslims, were kidnapped from a boarding school in Kebbi province, according to the BBC.
Authorities have now ordered all secondary schools and universities to close.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has postponed international travel, including this weekend’s G20 summit in South Africa, to address security concerns.
This week’s attacks follow claims by right-wing U.S. figures, including President Donald Trump, that Christians are being persecuted in Nigeria.
For months, activists and politicians in Washington have claimed that Islamist militants are systematically targeting Christians. The Nigerian government dismissed this claim.
Earlier this month, President Trump said he would send troops to Nigeria if the African country’s government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”
The Nigerian government has condemned claims that Christians are being persecuted as a “serious distortion of reality.”
“Terrorists attack anyone who rejects their murderous ideology, including Muslims, Christians and the non-religious,” one official said.
In the northeast, jihadist groups have been fighting the state government for more than a decade.
Groups that monitor violence say most of the victims of these groups are Muslim, as most attacks occur in the northern region, where most Muslims live.
In central Nigeria, deadly attacks occur frequently between herders, who are mostly Muslim, and farmers, who are mostly Christian.
But analysts say the phenomenon is often driven by competition for resources such as water and land rather than religion.
The Islamic militant group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from a school in Chibok town in 2014.
The case attracted international attention and sparked a global campaign calling for their return, including the intervention of then-US first lady Michelle Obama.
Many people have since escaped or been released, but as many as 100 remain missing.
