Twenty-four Nigerian schoolgirls released over a week after abduction

A group of 24 Nigerian girls who were abducted from their boarding school over a week ago have been released, the country's president says.

Armed assailants stormed the school in Nigeria's Kebbi State on 17 November, killing two members of staff and abducting 25 students. One was able to escape soon after.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu praised security forces for their "swift response" to the kidnapping - although the circumstances of the girls' release remained unclear.

Africa's most populous nation suffered a spate of abductions last week - with more than 250 children abducted from a Catholic school last Friday still missing, according to the school authorities.

Friday's kidnapping, in Niger State, has been described as one of the worst mass abductions in Nigeria's history. However, some officials say the number of missing children has been overstated.

Addressing the earlier abduction in Kebbi State, Bayo Onanuga, a special adviser to the president, confirmed on Tuesday that all the kidnapped schoolgirls had been accounted for.

Onanuga's statement said the attack had triggered copycat kidnappings.

President Tinubu said more personnel would be deployed to "vulnerable areas to avert further incidents of kidnapping".

In a post on X, he wrote: "The Air Force is to maintain continuous surveillance over the most remote areas, synchronising operations with ground units to effectively identify, isolate, disrupt, and neutralise all hostile elements."

More than 1,500 children have been abducted from Nigerian schools since 2014, when 276 girls were taken during the infamous Chibok mass abduction.

The kidnapping of people for ransom by criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, has become a major problem in many parts of Nigeria.

In the north-east of the country, jihadist groups have been battling the state for more than a decade.