Twenty-four schoolgirls abducted by armed men on November 17 from a boarding school in Kebbi State, in northwestern Nigeria, have been freed, Nigerian authorities said Tuesday.

In Nigeria, West Africa's most populous country plagued by insecurity, mass kidnappings are relatively common but have increased in recent weeks. In 2014, Boko Haram jihadists abducted nearly 300 schoolgirls in Chibok, in the northeast, an event that garnered international attention.

"President Bola Tinubu today welcomed the release of the 24 schoolgirls abducted last Monday by terrorists in Maga, Kebbi," according to a statement from Bayo Onanuga, special advisor to the president.

During the night of Sunday 16 November to Monday 17 November, the girls' school in Maga, in Kebbi State, was the target of an attack by armed men, during which the deputy headmaster of the establishment, Hassan Makuku, was killed and the schoolgirls were taken away by the assailants.

In total, 25 high school girls were abducted, but one of the girls managed to escape quickly, authorities said.

"President Tinubu commended the security forces for all their efforts to secure the release of all victims abducted by terrorists," the statement said.

"The Kebbi incident triggered other similar abductions in Eruku, Kwara State, and Papiri, Niger State," Mr. Onanuga continued in the statement.

Series of kidnappings

The state of Kebbi is caught between the jihadist threat from neighboring Niger and that of "bandits," criminal gangs who loot villages, extort money, kidnap and kill inhabitants throughout the northern part of the country.

The country has recently been under intense pressure following the unclaimed abductions, in less than a week, of hundreds of people, including more than 300 students and teachers from a Catholic school in Papiri, Niger State (central-west), 25 Muslim high school girls in Maga in Kebbi State (northwest), 38 worshippers in a church in Eruku in Kwara State (west) and 13 girls in Borno State (northeast).

One of the latest kidnappings in Nigeria took place on Monday evening in the west of the country where ten people were abducted from a village in Kwara State.

The current surge in kidnappings comes shortly after Donald Trump brandished the threat of military intervention in Nigeria a few weeks ago, claiming he wanted to stop the "murders of Christians" which he attributes to "Islamist terrorists".

The country, which has about 230 million inhabitants, is almost equally divided between a Muslim-majority north and a predominantly Christian south.

Jihadists and bandits

Nigeria is facing chronic insecurity.

In the northeast, the jihadist insurgency of Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP) has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced more than two million people.

In the northwest and central regions, criminal groups known as "bandits" are increasing their attacks, looting, and kidnappings for ransom.

During kidnappings, some captives are freed or rescued within days, others after weeks or months, while some manage to escape on their own.

Motivated primarily by money, the attackers are demanding ransoms ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars for each hostage, according to media reports.

Nigeria has about 370,000 police officers for a population of over 230 million, but until Sunday night, nearly a quarter of them were assigned to protecting politicians and their families, before President Tinubu redirected these forces to priority policing missions.