NAIROBI, Kenya – The Nigerian government announced Thursday that it had secured the release of 21 of the more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in April 2014.
The mass abduction in northeast Nigeria thrust Nigeria’s Islamist insurgency into a global spotlight, and underscored the challenges of security forces to battle the militants.
A government spokesman said that the release of the 21 captives was part of ongoing negotiations between Boko Haram and the Nigerian officials.
It was “brokered by the International Red Cross and the Swiss government. The negotiations will continue,” said the spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, on Twitter.
Shehu added that the girls were “very tired coming out of the process.” Their names were not immediately made public.
Although the world’s attention was drawn to the Chibok schoolgirls in 2014, thousands of other women and girls have also been abducted by Boko Haram in similar circumstances. Many of them were forcibly married to fighters and moved into what were effectively rape camps across northeastern Nigeria.
In August, Boko Haram posted a video apparently showing recent footage of dozens of some of the schoolgirls, saying some of them have been killed in airstrikes. In May, one of the missing girls was found wandering in the bush.
Northeastern Nigeria is now beset by one of the world’s biggest hunger crises, with many on the brink of starvation.
Featured Image: ITV News
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Kevin Sieff
