A local official spokesman said today, Saturday, that an unknown armed group has released 42 people, most of whom are children, and hundreds are still missing..

Marie Noel-Burgi, spokeswoman for the Governor of Niger State in west-central Nigeria, Deutsche Presse-Agenter (DPA), reported that forty-two people who were released were abducted from a school in Kajara State on February 16 , Which included 27 children and many more. School employees and their families.

In a related context, no trace of 317 high school students in the city of Janjibara in Janjafara State was found abducted on Friday morning..

Kidnappings by armed groups have increased rapidly in Nigeria in the last months. It is notable that Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa..

An armed gang kidnapped 20 people in the Niger state who were returning to their homes after attending a wedding.

And last December, about 300 schoolchildren were kidnapped by unknown people in the northwestern state of Katsina.

The fate of the kidnappers from Katsina and Zamfara states is still unknown, while the kidnappers released 53 kidnappers in the Nigerian state earlier this week, most of them women and children..

None of the groups claimed responsibility for any of the kidnappings, and it is unclear whether the government paid the ransom for their release..