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Chibok girl rescued after escaping Boko Haram

David Martin Reuters, AP, AFP
May 17, 2017

One of the kidnapped Chibok girls has escaped after being held captive for more than three years by Boko Haram Islamists. Her escape means that 107 of the 219 schoolgirls kidnapped in April 2014 are now free.

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Symbolbild Entführungen von Frauen und Mädchen in Nigeria
Image: AFP/Getty Images/P. U. Ekpei

Nigeria's presidential spokesman confirmed Wednesday that a girl believed to be one of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls had been found and rescued after she escaped captivity from Boko Haram militants.

Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina disclosed that senior ministers were informed of the girl's rescue during a Wednesday cabinet meeting.

Read more: Chibok girls freed, Boko Haram undefeated 

DW correspondent Adrian Kriesch in Abuja after the release of 82 Chibok girls

The girl's escape comes less than two weeks after 82 of the kidnapped Chibok girls were released by Boko Haram as part of a prisoner swap deal with the Nigerian government.

Adesina told reporters that "the details are yet to fully unravel. But in terms of is it true? Yes, it is true." The girl is already being brought to Abuja where the other released Chibok girls have been receiving medical treatment, he added.

Presidential aide Bashir Ahmad also confirmed that the girl has been found and rescued, tweeting: "The escaped #ChibokGirl was found by the Nigerian troops while she was escaping from the captivity."

Boko Haram's abduction of 276 girls from a school in the remote town of Chibok in Borno state on April 14, 2014, brought worldwide condemnation and international attention to the conflict that has engulfed large parts of northeastern Nigeria.

Prominent figures such as Michelle Obama, then the first lady of the United States, joined the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag campaign to free them.

Dozens of the young women escaped soon after the event, but up to 200 remained missing for over two years. Then, in May of last year, one girl with a baby was discovered by Nigerian troops, raising hopes for a safe recovery of the other abductees. Two more girls were then found in the succeeding months, before the International Committee of the Red Cross brokered the release of 21 of the young women last October.

Following this month's release of 82 women and Wednesday's rescue, 112 girls remain missing.

Read more: Is Buhari winning the fight against Boko Haram?

The Nigerian government has indicated that it is in talks with Boko Haram over the release of the remaining girls.

Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency to create an Islamic caliphate in northeastern Nigeria has left at least 20,000 people dead and displaced more than 2.5 million civilians in Africa's most populous country.  The group still carries out suicide bombings in Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon. 

dm/gsw (Reuters, AFP)

Nigerian president meets freed Chibok girls