Nigeria school kidnapping survivor reunites with family for Christmas as last captives are freed

Описание: (25 Dec 2025)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4626304

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Azakabosso, Nigeria - 24 December 2025
1. Emmanuel Ibrahim walks with family members in the courtyard of his family compound in Azakabosso, Niger State
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Emmanuel Ibrahim, teacher who was kidnapped:
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“There’s more children and women than men. And most especially the children, many of them are in a very bad condition. There’s one of these children that lost his life. The (captors) were not feeding them well. So one fateful day like that, we just woke up and discovered that the child was no longer alive. So it’s (one) among the terrorists that took the child and went away to bury the child over there.”
3. Ibrahim walks with family members in the courtyard
4. Various of Ibrahim’s family members look on
5. Ibrahim’s family compound
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Emmanuel Ibrahim, teacher who was kidnapped:
“In my expectations, I was not expecting I would have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with my family. As God may have it, all of a sudden, I’m just seeing it as a dream. For me to just wake up and realize I’m with my family, I’m with everyone, I’m so happy, I’m so excited.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kwana, Nigeria - 24 December 2025
7. SOUNDBITE (Pidgin English) Anthony Chieme, parent of two kidnapped children:
“The government gave her water (saline) and blood transfusion, but she is still not feeling well. But I trust God.”
8. Chieme’s wife holds a baby while sitting in between the two children who were kidnapped and released (the boy was released earlier, and the girl on Sunday)
STORYLINE:
In the courtyard of his family home in Azakabosso, Emmanuel Ibrahim was welcomed by family members after spending a month in the bush, held hostage by kidnappers.

Ibrahim, 29, is a social studies teacher at St. Mary’s School in Papiri. He is one of several hundred students and teachers who were abducted from the school, in Nigeria’s Niger State, in an early morning attack in November.

He described harrowing conditions with kidnappers, who he referred to as “terrorists”, and he said there were “more women and children than men” in the camp where the hostages were staying in the bush.

But Ibrahim smiled when he spoke about being home in time for Christmas.

“In my expectations, I was not expecting (that) I would have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with my family,” he said.

Ibrahim is among the 130 students and teachers who were released Sunday, the last of the group that remained in captivity after 100 were released earlier this month.

Anthony Chieme spoke to The Associated Press when his son was released at that time. But he still had a daughter in captivity, who was released with the group this past weekend.

As both of his children sat beside him in front of the family home Wednesday, he said he thanked God that he now has them both back, but worried about his daughter.

School kidnappings have come to define insecurity in Africa’s most populous country.

Officials did not say whether a ransom — common in such abductions — had been paid. No group has claimed responsibility, but residents blamed armed gangs that target schools and travelers in kidnappings for ransom across Nigeria’s conflict-battered north.

Most of those seized in the attack were aged between 10 and 17, the school said.

AP Video shot by Afolabi Sotunde

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