Kidnappers—described by government officials as “bandits”—have released 279 girls who had been abducted from a secondary school in Zamfara, in northwest Nigeria. The girls had been taken from their dormitory at the government school on February 25; they were set free on March 2. (Early reports, which said that 317 girls had been kidnapped, were inaccurate.) Pope Francis had made a plea for the students’ release at this Sunday public audience.