Daily Trust gathered that the students escaped from the camp where they were kept on 19 July 2021. An aunt to one of the students, who preferred not to be named because she was not authorised to speak, confirmed this to Daily Trust on Monday.

According to her, the three teenagers had spent five days roaming inside the forest before they finally met another herder who directed them out of the forest. It was also gathered that one of the escaped students who could recall his father’s phone number borrowed a phone to call home before his father went to pick them up.

“The children were found around Kasuwar Magani on Sunday evening hours after 28 students of the school were released by the bandits. It was the school management that called my in-law to inform us,” she said.

Two other students had escaped from the camps before they were recovered by the police.