Good News: 293 Women and Girls were Rescued From a Boko Haram Camp, But Where are the Chibok Girls?

Bate Felix, Ardo Abdallah : Apr 29, 2015
Reuters/Charisma News

(Update: It was hoped that the Chibok girls, who were kidnapped by Boko Haram almost exactly a year ago, had been found but the Nigerian military said they are not among those rescued)

(Nigeria)—Nigeria's army has rescued 200 girls and 93 women during a military operation to wrest back the Sambisa Forest from the Boko Haram Islamist militant group, it said on Tuesday. (These women from Chibok remember the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram/Reuters)

Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls near the northern village of Chibok in April 2014, causing an international outcry. The six-year insurgency has seen thousands killed and many more abducted.

"Troops this afternoon rescued 200 girls and 93 women from Sambisa Forest. We cannot confirm if the Chibok girls are in this group," army spokesman Major General Olukolade said, adding Nigerian troops had also destroyed three camps run by the militants there.

Diplomats and intelligence officials say they believed at least some of the girls were being held in the forest about 100 km (60 miles) from Chibok, although U.S. reconnaissance drones failed to find them.

"Now they are excited about their freedom," he said.

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