Halima Ali Maiyanga, one of more than 100 young women still missing, called her father to say she and others on Thursday managed to flee Boko Haram militants.
“She asked me. Is this my dad? Is this my dad, and she started crying. The crying was [so] a lot and I could not hear her very well. I cried too. “I never expected to hear from her again,” said Ali Maiyanga.
“The whole family is so happy. Our house is full of people cheering with us.”
Ali Maiyanga said he did not get the chance to talk to his daughter properly because she was emotional and the call was short. But he said she and others are safe and being cared for by the Nigerian army.
He added that she called from a telephone line belonging to a security officer.
CNN has released the Nigerian military for official confirmation.
It is not yet clear how many of the remaining missing girls managed to escape.
In 2014, militants stormed a boarding school in the Nigerian village of Chibok and abducted 276 girls – an incident that attracted widespread attention and sparked an international campaign advocating their release with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.
Dozens of girls escaped almost immediately after the mass abduction. According to witnesses, another girl was found in May 2016 when she wandered out of a Nigerian forest to ask for help.
Since then, nothing has been heard from the 112 young women in custody.
This is an evolving story, more to follow …