Nigeria-Security : Nigeria Exchanges Boko Haram Prisoners with 82 Chibok Girls
Book Haram militants have released some 82 schoolgirls from a group of over 200 who were kidnapped three years ago by the same group in the northeastern town of Chibok, in exchange for prisoners.
The Nigerian government revealed on Saturday May 7,2017 that some prisoners were handed over to the Islamist group to have the girls released.
Around 270 girls were kidnapped in April 2014 by the Islamist militant group, which has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in northeastern Nigeria.
Dozens escaped in the initial melee, but more than 200 remained missing for more than two years.
Nigeria thanked Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross for helping secure the release of the 82 girls after “lengthy negotiations”, the presidency said in a statement.
President Muhammadu Buhari receiveed the girls on Sunday afternoon in the capital Abuja, it said, without saying how many Boko Haram suspects had been exchanged or disclosing other details.
A military source said the girls were brought on Sunday morning from Banki near the Cameroon border to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state where the insurgency started.
The release of the girls may give a boost to Buhari who has hardly appeared in public since returning from Britain in March for treatment of an unspecified illness.
He made crushing the insurgency a pillar of his election campaign in 2015.
The army has retaken most of the territory initially lost to the militants but attacks and suicide bombings by the group have made it nearly impossible for displaced persons to return to their recaptured hometowns.
“The President directed the security agencies to continue in earnest until all the Chibok girls have been released and reunited with their families,” the presidency said.
With additional reports from Reuters
