Category World News

Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 100 children who were among hundreds kidnapped from a Catholic school in northern Nigeria last month, officials and local media have reported.

The 100 children arrived in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and are set to be handed over to local government officials in Niger State on Monday, an unnamed United Nations source told the AFP news agency.

“They are going to be handed over to Niger State government tomorrow,” the source told the AFP news agency.

Nigeria’s The Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday that the rescued children were receiving medical evaluations and would be reunited with their families after a debriefing.

Presidential spokesman Sunday Dare also confirmed reports to the AFP that 100 children were being freed.

Armed gunmen kidnapped 303 students and 12 teachers from St Mary’s School in the Papiri community of Niger State’s Agwara district on November 21.

They included both male and female students aged between 10 to 18 years, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

Fifty of the students escaped captivity in the days after they were kidnapped, returning home to their families. Following the release of 100 students on Sunday, 153 students and 12 teachers are believed to remain in captivity.

Days earlier, gunmen abducted 25 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in the neighbouring Kebbi State’s Maga town,170km (106 miles) away.

“We have been praying and waiting for their return. If it is true, then it is a cheering news,” said Daniel Atori, spokesman for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese, which runs the school.

“However, we are not officially aware and have not been duly notified by the federal government.”

The latest abductions are the worst seen in Nigeria since more than 270 girls from Chibok town were snatched from their school in 2014.

In total, more than 1,400 Nigerian students have been kidnapped since 2014, in almost a dozen separate incidents.

The most recent kidnappings came soon after United States President Donald Trump said that Nigeria’s Christians are facing genocide, a claim that has been questioned by local officials and Christian groups, who say that people from different faiths have been caught up in ongoing violence in parts of the country.

Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Al Jazeera last month that people of all faiths have been affected by the ongoing violence.

“We’ve continuously made our point clear that we acknowledge the fact that there are killings that have taken place in Nigeria, but those killings were not restricted to Christians alone. Muslims are being killed. Traditional worshippers are being killed,” Ebienfa said.

“The majority is not the Christian population.”

Trump has threatened military intervention in Nigeria, alleging that the country is failing to protect Christians from persecution. He has also threatened to cut aid to Nigeria.

Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people, is divided between the largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south.

According to Pew Research Center estimates, Muslims make up 56 percent of Nigeria’s population, while Christians make up just more than 43 percent.

The Royal Thai Army has announced launching air attacks along its disputed border with Cambodia, after accusing Cambodian forces of firing at its troops and killing at least one soldier.

In a statement on Monday, spokesman Major-General Winthai Suvari said the Thai Army deployed aircraft after the deadly clashes in the Chong Bok area of Nam Yuen District in Ubon Ratchathani province.

Suvari said at least four other soldiers were also wounded.

He added that the Thai Army was “expediting support for the evacuation of civilians in border areas”.

Cambodia also confirmed the attacks.

Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defence spokeswoman Maly Socheata told the AFP news agency that Thai forces launched an attack on Cambodian troops in the border provinces of Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey early on Monday morning.

She added that Cambodia had not retaliated.

The attacks are the latest flare-up of violence between the neighbours after a ceasefire ended five days of deadly clashes in July.

At least 48 people were killed and an estimated 300,000 temporarily displaced during the clashes, with the two neighbours exchanging rockets and heavy artillery fire.

The ceasefire that ended the hostilities was brokered by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and United States President Trump, who also witnessed the signing of an expanded peace agreement between the two countries in Kuala Lumpur in October.

Tensions have continued to flare, however.

Following a landmine blast last month that maimed one of its soldiers, Thailand said it was halting the implementation of the ceasefire pact with Cambodia. Phnom Penh denied responsibility for the landmine explosion, saying the device was a remnant from past conflicts.

Thailand and Cambodia have for more than a century contested sovereignty at undemarcated points along their 817-km (508-mile) land border, first mapped in 1907 by France when it ruled Cambodia as a colony.

Here’s where things stand on Monday, December 8:

Fighting

• Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed at least four people, including a 70-year-old woman, on Sunday, according to Ukrainian police and the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office. At least 10 others were also injured.
• Russian forces also hit the Pechenihy reservoir dam in Kharkiv during the attack, with the Ukrainian military saying it was ready for the facility to be “critically damaged”. The reservoir supplies water to the city of Kharkiv, which is Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis.
• Russian attacks also killed two others in Ukraine on Sunday, one in the city of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region and another in the Chernihiv region, according to regional governors.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces launched more than 650 drones and 51 missiles overnight into Sunday, causing injuries and destroying infrastructure across Ukraine, with energy being the “main target”.
• In the central city of Kremenchuk, the attacks caused widespread power and water outages, according to Mayor Vitaliy Maletsky. He described the assault as a “massive combined strike” and said city workers were working to restore services.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces have seized the Ukrainian villages of Kucherivka in the Kharkiv region and Rivne near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.
• The ministry also said that its forces shot down 172 Ukrainian drones and four Neptune long-range guided missiles in a 24-hour period.

Politics and diplomacy

• Zelenskyy said on Sunday that his conversation with United States representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on a peace plan for Ukraine had been “constructive, although not easy”. “The American representatives know the basic Ukrainian positions,” Zelenskyy added.
• Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s outgoing envoy for Ukraine, told the Reagan National Defense Forum in California that a deal to end the war in Ukraine was “really, really close”, and that negotiations were continuing over Russia’s demand for Ukraine’s Donbas region and the future of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. “The last 10 metres” is always the hardest, said Kellogg, who is due to step down in January.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, said that “territorial problems” were discussed at talks in Moscow between US and Russian officials last week, and that Washington would have to “make serious, I would say, radical changes to their papers” on Ukraine.
• Zelenskyy is due to meet the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for talks in London on Monday.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin on Sunday that Trump’s new national security strategy largely aligned with Russia’s positions. “The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision,” Peskov said of the new US strategy.
• He also said it was encouraging that the new strategy pledged to end “the perception, and preventing the reality, of the NATO military alliance as a perpetually expanding alliance”.

• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke with Zelenskyy on the phone and denounced what she called a new wave of “indiscriminate” Russian attacks on Ukraine. She also pledged to provide Italian generators to Ukraine in the coming weeks.

Real Madrid suffered a shock 2-0 loss and finished with nine men against Celta Vigo in their La Liga clash after Williot Swedberg scored an audacious goal with his heel and a second in stoppage time to leave the hosts four points off leaders Barcelona.

Swedish substitute Swedberg cleverly diverted a cross from Bryan Zaragoza past Thibaut Courtois in the 53rd minute to put Celta ahead, and had an easy finish three minutes into added time, going around the goalkeeper to wrap up the points on Sunday.

Celta jumped from 14th to 10th, while the defeat ended Real’s 100 percent home league record this season after six successive wins.

Xabi Alonso’s stuttering Real team have now won only one of their last five league games as they await the midweek arrival of Manchester City in the Champions League.

Alonso chose to rest centre-back Antonio Rudiger, starting with Alvaro Carreras in the heart of defence, but Rudiger’s break did not last long, with the German defender coming on midway through the first half after Eder Militao pulled up injured.

Celta Vigo goalkeeper Ionut Radu made a handful of good saves in the first half, keeping out a Jude Bellingham header and Arda Guler’s drive from range.

Madrid struggled to create serious danger as Celta set up in a tough-to-crack low defensive block, denying dangerous forwards Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior space.

Guler missed Madrid’s best chance of the first half, with the Turkish playmaker sending a shot wide on the swivel after Mbappe teed him up.

Radu also thwarted Vinicius Junior after Aurelien Tchouameni chopped a ball in behind the defence for the Brazilian to run onto, a rare crack in Celta’s armour.

Celta’s Romanian goalkeeper turned away a fierce Fede Valverde effort from distance early in the second half, before Celta stunned the hosts.

Bryan Zaragoza crossed from the left for Swedberg, who produced a gorgeous flicked finish to beat Thibaut Courtois to send the Galicians ahead.

Madrid were wounded, literally in the case of Bellingham, with blood running down his face from a cut sustained in a tussle with Celta target man Borja Iglesias.

Adding insult to injury, Fran Garcia earned two yellow cards inside a minute, the second for a clumsy foul on Swedberg, to leave Los Blancos with 10 men for the final third of the match.

Mbappe sent a lob over Radu but down onto the roof of the net, and substitute Gonzalo Garcia headed just wide as Madrid searched for an equaliser, which did not come.

Carreras was dismissed in stoppage time as Madrid lost their heads, receiving a second yellow for dissent as he protested a decision by referee Alejandro Quintero.

With Madrid down to nine and in disarray, Celta wrapped up their win as Swedberg rounded Courtois and ran the ball home.

Speaking to the media after the game, Iglesias praised his side’s defensive resilience to win a game with a “strange” ending.

“They have got a lot of quality. It is difficult to play against them. We defended very well,” he said.

“The end of the game was pretty strange. There were a lot of situations, and then there were stoppages, and then some fouls. They then got a bit desperate.

“We are doing well on the road [as it is Celta Vigo’s fourth away win this season]. It is difficult to explain.”

Alonso criticised his team’s “disappointing” effort and intensity, as well as the decisions of the referee.

“We were better with 10 men than with 11 tonight. Simply because with 10 men, at least we started running and working hard,” Alonso said in comments to the media after the game.

“We have to try to turn the page as quickly as possible. It’s just three points – there’s still a lot of the league games left.”