Allegedly, more of the missing schoolgirls are returning home.
LONDON and MAIDUGURI – Nearly seven years after Boko Haram militants snatched them from their dormitories in the northeastern Nigerian city of Chibok, more of the missing schoolgirls are said to be returning home.
Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian human rights lawyer who practices in the United States and previously worked with some of the liberated girls and their families, said a parent told him that his daughter and others had escaped their kidnappers.
“Ali Maiyanga’s two daughters were part of the few Muslim schoolgirls taken along with the majority of Christian Chibok girls. Information currently available indicates that there are other escapees in the army who are anxiously awaiting parents to identify , “Ogebe said in a statement. to ABC News late Thursday. “We spoke to Uncle Aliyanga moments ago and confirmed that he actually spoke to his daughter today, who informed him that she was rescued with others. Her sister, who escaped four years ago and is on school vacation, was delighted with the news of her brother or sister’s escape. ‘
Lawal Zannah, secretary of the Chibok Parents’ Association whose daughter was among the kidnappers, also confirmed the news.
“We have heard that some of our girls have escaped from the forest, but we have yet to get the details of their number,” Zannah told reporters Thursday night.
Another parent, Malam Madu Mutta, said the Chibok community was anxiously awaiting the girls’ arrival.
“We have been told that they are currently with the security operators. We still need to know the numbers, but we are glad that some of them have escaped,” Mutta told reporters on Friday. “So many other parents and family members are coming from Chibok hoping to meet their daughters. Once again, the hope has been taken up that we can get some of them back.”
Nigerian authorities have not yet released a statement confirming the matter. ABC News has reached out to the Nigerian military as well as local government officials.
In April 2014, members of the jihadist group Boko Haram ambushed a girls’ hostel in Chibok in the middle of the night and abducted 276 students before disappearing into the forest. Some girls managed to escape on their own, while others were later rescued or freed after negotiations. But the fate of many remained unknown.
Boko Haram, whose name in the local Hausa language is roughly translated as ‘Western education is banned’, has been waging a brutal uprising in northeastern Nigeria since 2009. The group seeks to establish an Islamic state there, though it has spread its terror across the region’s mountainous borders over the years in Niger, Chad and Cameroon, all of which surround the Lake Chad Basin, where millions are affected by the violence. according to the United Nations.
Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2015. Its leader, Abubakar Shekau, and several commanders separated from the group in 2016 over ideological differences and formed their own faction.
Boko Haram’s uprising was largely fueled by the group’s systematic campaign to kidnap children and force thousands of girls and boys into their ranks, according to a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2017. The group is already a number of years targeted at Nigerian schools, and the Chibok attack is the best known and widely known.
The kidnapping in Chibok shocked the world and led to the launch of a social media campaign in which millions of people around the world, including high political figures and celebrities, asked to save the girls by tweeting the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. However, there was little political action.