ABUJA, 18 December, 2020, (TON):  Hundreds of schoolboys who were kidnapped in northwestern Nigeria nearly a week ago have been released, a local official said late on Thursday, prompting joy and relief for families that had been praying for the boys’ safe return.

Gunmen raided the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara town, Katsina state, on motorbikes and carried off the boys in the biggest such incident in the region in recent years.

Governor Aminu Bello Masari said in a televised interview with state channel NTA that a total of 344 boys held in the Rugu Forest in neighboring Zamfara state had been freed.

"We have recovered most of the boys. It's not all of them," he said.

In the rescue operation, security forces had cordoned off the area where the boys were being held and had been given instructions not to fire a single shot.

The boys were on their way back to Katsina state and would be medically examined and reunited with their families on Friday, Masari said.

Earlier on Thursday, protesters marched in the northwestern city of Katsina under a banner reading #BringBackOurBoys as pressure mounted on the government to improve security.

Criminal gangs operating in the northwest have killed more than 1,100 people in the first half of 2020 alone, according to rights group Amnesty International.

In the northeast, Boko Haram and its offshoot, West Africa Province, have waged a decade-long insurgency estimated to have displaced about 2 million people and killed more than 30,000.