{"id":115910,"date":"2021-03-03T12:50:40","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T04:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=115910"},"modified":"2021-03-03T12:50:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T04:50:45","slug":"nigerias-president-unicef-hail-release-of-schoolgirls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=115910","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria&#8217;s president, UNICEF hail release of schoolgirls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdnuploads.aa.com.tr\/uploads\/Contents\/2021\/03\/02\/thumbs_b_c_ad9f4509672bf5e9ff35f8517996d84a.jpg?v=162543\" alt=\"Nigeria's president, UNICEF hail release of schoolgirls\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>ABUJA, March 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; <strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Nigeria&#8217;s president and UNICEF Tuesday hailed the release of 279 schoolgirls kidnapped by gunmen in the country\u2019s northwest Zamfara State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a statement, President Mohammadu Buhari said he received the news of the release on Tuesday with overwhelming joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI join the families and people of Zamfara State in welcoming and celebrating the release of these traumatized female students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peter Hawkins, UNICEF&#8217;s representative in Nigeria, said the release was welcome news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are relieved with news of the release of over 200 students of the Government Girls&#8217; Secondary School Jangebe in Zamfara State, northeast Nigeria,\u201d he said in a statement, calling on the government to take measures to protect children and schools in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He announced UNICEF&#8217;s plan to provide psychological support to the freed girls and their families in collaboration with the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Initial reports by local media put the number of the abducted girls at 317, but officials clarified 279 girls were kidnapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The girls were abducted by gunmen from Government Girls&#8217; Secondary School in a town of Jangebe in Talata Marafa Local Government, Zamfara State on Feb 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle first broke the news of the release in a tweet on Tuesday.<br><br>The governor, who received the girls in Gusau, the state capital, said the 279 girls returned safely without paying any ransoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Officials said &#8220;bandits&#8221; were behind the abduction, referring to the groups of armed men who operate in Zamfara state and kidnap for money or to push for the release of their members from jail.\u00a0&#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ABUJA, March 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; \u00a0Nigeria&#8217;s president and UNICEF Tuesday hailed the release of 279 schoolgirls kidnapped by gunmen in the country\u2019s northwest Zamfara State. In a statement, President Mohammadu Buhari said he received the news of the release on Tuesday with overwhelming joy. \u201cI join the families and people of Zamfara State in welcoming [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":115912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115910"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/115912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}