Nigeria - Extremists Kidnap New Group of 200+ Girls, 14 Apr 2014

[Dr. Know?]

Nigerian troops free 800 Boko Haram hostages

Nigerian troops have freed more than 800 people held by Boko Haram Islamist fighters in multiple villages in the country's restive northeast, the army said Thursday.
All the hostages were rescued in Borno state with 520 recovered in Kusumma village on Tuesday after a confrontation with Boko Haram fighters, and a further 309 from 11 other villages under the Islamist group's control.

http://www.globalpost.com/article/6751035/2016/03/24/nigerian-troops-free-800-boko-haram-hostages

I hope it's verified soon.

 

[0101ABA]

​First missing Chibok girl found after 2 years as Boko Haram prisoner

When Amina Ali Nkeki was kidnapped by the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram more than two years ago, she was a mere schoolgirl.

On Tuesday night, she apparently wandered out of a forest, asking for help -- accompanied now by a "husband" and a baby.
She is the first of the more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram to be freed after the two years in captivity, Nigerian military officials and a witness say.

Military officials and locals gave different accounts of how she was liberated. Nigeria's army said she was rescued by army troops, but a witness told CNN the girl wandered out of the Sambisa Forest in the northeast of the country along with her child and a man.

The Sambisa Forest, believed to be the terrorist group's stronghold, has long been the suspected location of the girls. As many as 276 of them were kidnapped at gunpoint from their boarding school in Chibok in Borno, northeast Nigeria, on April 14, 2014.
At least 57 girls were able to escape soon after their abduction, but more than 200 of them remain missing.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/18/africa/nigeria-chibok-girl-found/

 

[dotr]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/missing-nigerian-chibok-girl-found-boko-haram-1.3587279


Members of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign embrace each other at a sit-out in Abuja, Nigeria, on Wednesday. (Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

"This is to confirm that one of the abducted Chibok school girls ... was among the rescued persons by our troops," said a one-line statement from army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman.

Hunters took the 19-year-old — she was 17 when abducted — to her home village of Mbalala, near Chibok, on Tuesday and she reunited with her mother, Danladi said. Her father died while she was held captive, said her uncle Yakubu Nkeki. Mother, daughter and baby have been taken to a military camp in the town of Damboa

The girl's mother tried to commit suicide some months after her daughter was seized, said Danladi, who is from Chibok and has treated several of the parents. He said the mother "suffered a huge traumatic disorder ... I had to convince her that she just has to stay alive if she really wants her daughter returned home safe and sound."

At least 16 of the girls' parents have died since the kidnapping, he said. Others have ailments they blame on their ongoing trauma.

"I suffered a stroke on Friday, that's why you don't recognize my voice," said the Rev. Enoch Mark, whose two daughters are among the missing girls. He said the escape of the first Chibok girl brings renewed hope.

"I believe that, by the grace of God, our daughters, some of them, will be found if they are still alive."

Other Chibok girls may have been rescued by soldiers hunting down Boko Haram in the remote northeastern Sambisa Forest on Tuesday night, said Chibok community leader Pogu Bitrus. He said he is working with officials to establish their identities.

 

[dotr]

http://cnews.canoe.com/CNEWS/World/2016/05/18/22634334.html

Amina Ali Nkeki.

R. Evon Idahosa, executive director of PathFinders Justice Initiative, which works on behalf of victims of child abuse, sex trafficking and rape, said the West has not done enough to help the Chibok girls.

Idahosa noted the response after the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, when government leaders marched "in solidarity, arm-in-arm over the death of 17 people. Not to say that that is any less important than the lives of these girls, but the reality is that one Western life definitely has a different value from the value of a girl in Nigeria."

Returning to ordinary life could be difficult for the victims, according to experts.

"Children in this situation typically require medical assistance and psycho-social support to help them cope with what they have been through while they were in captivity," said UNICEF spokeswoman Helene Sandbu Ryeng.

 

[0101ABA]

Held for months by the Nigerian government and confined to a house in the capital for the foreseeable future, Amina Ali, a schoolgirl who was rescued after two years in Boko Haram captivity, may never be the girl she once was, her mother fears.

(...)

After a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, in the hope she would shed light on the fate of the other kidnapped girls, Amina has since been held in a house in the capital Abuja for what the Nigerian government has called a "restoration process".

But her mother, Binta Ali, who has spent the last two months in the house, is concerned about Amina's welfare and future.

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016...escued-from-boko-haram-fears-for-her_c1396549

 

[dotr]

http://www.cp24.com/world/nigeria-says-21-of-abducted-chibok-schoolgirls-have-been-freed-1.3113205
October 13, 2016 6:53AM EDT

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria -- Nigerian officials say 21 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram extremists more than two years ago have been freed.

Presidential spokesman Mallam Garba Shehu tweeted Thursday that the girls are in the custody of Nigeria's Department of State Services.

 

[Indy Anna]

“The release of the girls, in a limited number, is the outcome of negotiations between the administration and the Boko Haram, brokered by the International Red Cross and the Swiss government,”Garba Shehu, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari, said in a series of messages posted on Twitter. “The negotiations will continue.”

The girls were released around 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, the government said. In addition to the 21 girls, a 20-month-old boy born to one of them in captivity was released, it said.

[...]

Earlier in the day, Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, denied preliminary reports that Boko Haram fighters might have been released in exchange for the girls.

“Please note that this is not a swap,” he said. “It is a release, the product of painstaking negotiations and trust on both sides. We see this as a credible first step in the eventual release of all the Chibok girls in captivity.”

Read more at .... http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/world/africa/boko-haram-nigeria.html

 

[Indy Anna]

I hope this is true!

The insurgency once controlled an area of north-eastern Nigeria the size of Belgium, but had been driven into their “Camp Zero” stronghold in the depths of the vast Sambisa forest.

Nigerian soldiers have made significant gains in the former colonial game reserve across recent weeks, and Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement they had been forced out entirely on Friday.

<snipped>

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/boko-haram-nigerian-army-sambisa-forest-a7494176.html


Earlier in the week, the Nigerian military said it arrested 564 Boko Haram members and freed 1,880 civilians from the Sambisa Forest.

[...]

In an email seen by Reuters, Buhari said: "I was told by the Chief of Army Staff that the camp fell at about 1:35pm on Friday, 23 December, and that the terrorists are on the run, and no longer have a place to hide."

<snipped>

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/war-boko-h...rror-stronghold-says-president-buhari-1598021

 

[Indy Anna]

Nigerian soldiers find Chibok girl kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014

She had a six-month-old baby with her.

<snipped>
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-security-idUSKBN14P20Z?il=0

:cry: This is bittersweet: so happy she can be reunited with her family, but can't imagine the grief she has endured. I hope she can return to a near-normal life.

 

[sloane7777]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...ria-girls-still-missing-boko-haram/100319108/

 

[CoverMeCagney]

82 of the girls have been released!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4480688/Up-82-Chibok-schoolgirls-released-Boko-Haram.html

:happydance:

 

[Elley Mae]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-05-07-11-40-48

 

[dotr]

This is a very, very exciting news for us that we have over 80 of our girls coming back again,” Bukky Shonibare with the #BringBackOurGirls campaign told Sky TV. “Their life in captivity has been one that depicts suffering, it depicts the fact that they have been starved, abused, and as we have seen before some of those girls have come back with children, and some of them have also come back with news of how they have been sexually abused.

”
http://cnews.canoe.com/CNEWS/World/2017/05/06/22722657.html

This Monday, May 12, 2014 file image taken from video by Nigeria's Islamic extremist network, shows the alleged missing girls abducted from the northeastern town of Chibok. (AP Photo/File)

The latest negotiations were again mediated by the Swiss government and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Nigeria’s government said.

At the initial release of girls in October, the government said the release of another 83 would be coming soon. But at the three-year anniversary of the kidnapping in April, the government said negotiations had “gone quite far” but faced challenges.

Buhari late last year announced Boko Haram had been “crushed,” but the group continues to carry out attacks in northern Nigeria and neighbouring countries. Its insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people and driven 2.6 million from their homes, with millions facing starvation.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Some Chibok schoolgirls are now free — but hundreds more abducted by Boko Haram are still missing

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ram-are-still-missing/?utm_term=.d93a94373e36

#BringBackOurGirls

 

[ZaZara]

RELEASED GIRLS ARE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, EVEN FOR THEOR OWN PARENTS; NIGERIA PUTS THEM IN PRISON FIRST

NOS.nl
http://nos.nl/artikel/2171887-chibok-meisjes-vrij-maar-levensgevaarlijk-zelfs-voor-eigen-ouders.html

Terror group Boko Haram released 82 Chibok girls yesterday who were hostages for many years. According to a Nigerian government spokesman, they have been exchanged for five commanders of Boko Haram.

But the release does not mean the end of their problems. "It's not a case of these girls going home now to enjoy their freedom. That's because the trauma is too big," according to Africa correspondent Koert Lindijer.

The girls, aged 16-18, were kidnapped in 2014 together with 194 others from a boarding school in Chibok, a town in northeastern Nigeria. Boko Haram fighters took them to an unknown place. The muslim extremists married the school girls, intimidated them and put them to work.

Last year, a group of Chibok girls was released. They are heavily traumatized, says Lindijer. "They are violent and sometimes have sympathies for Boko Haram. There are cases children who were released and who killed their parents once at home."

Because of their psychological problems, released or escaped children form a security risk. That's why Nigeria often places them into prisons. There the children get guidance, they are investigated and helpers seek to free them of the muslim extremist thoughts.

Despite government policy, suicide attacks are being carried out by teenage girls almost every week in northeastern Nigeria. Lindijer: "Girls of 11 or 12 years of age are considered to be extreemely dangerous."

That is exactly what Boko Haram wants.

The terrorist group attacks the Nigerian army through civilians. The countryside in northeastern Nigeria is in the hands of the muslim extremists. They kidnap children, women and men. The men are assassinated, the women are raped and the children are put to work.

It is estimated that Boko Haram has kidnapped thousands of children, possibly even more. Most kidnappings do not get as much attention as Chibok girls. They made it to the news worldwide and caused a wave of protests in Nigeria, but also outside.

In November 2014, in Damasak, for example, five hundred people were abducted, including three hundred children. But the international media hardly paid attention to this abduction.

"The release of these 82 schoolgirls is good news, but the suffering in the region remains unabated," Lindijer says. "The locals are heavily traumatized, even if the Nigerian army defeats Boko Haram, coming to terms with all pain will take decades."

BBM

 

[dotr]

May 20 2017
http://globalnews.ca/news/3466646/nigerian-schoolgirls-meeting-families/

[h=1]Nigerian schoolgirls freed from Boko Haram meeting families after 3 years[/h]

Family members celebrate as they embrace a relative, one of the released kidnapped schoolgirls, in Abuja, Nigeria, Saturday, May 20, 2017.

AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga

Images from the scene showed brightly dressed families rushing through the crowd and embracing outdoors. One small group sank to their knees, with a woman raising her hands as if praising in church. Others were in tears.

&#8220;I am really happy today, I am Christmas and New year, I am very happy and I thank God,&#8221; said mother Godiya Joshua, whose daughter Esther was among those freed.

The families were reunited in the capital, Abuja, where the girls were taken by Nigerian authorities after their release early this month.

 

[JerseyGirl]

More than 90 Nigerian schoolgirls are feared missing after Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram attacked a village in the northeastern state of Yobe, two sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

Their disappearance, if confirmed, would be one of the largest since Boko Haram abducted more than 270 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in 2014. That case drew global attention to the nine-year insurgency, which has sparked what the United Nations has called one of the world&#8217;s worst humanitarian crises.

A roll-call at the girls&#8217; school on Tuesday showed that 91 students were absent, said the two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...after-boko-haram-attack-sources-idUSKCN1G51DU

 

[JerseyGirl]

Nigerian President calls missing schoolgirls a 'national disaster'

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/24/africa/boko-haram-schoolgirls-intl/index.html

 

[dotr]

March 21 2018
https://www.cp24.com/world/boko-har...ed-schoolgirls-in-nigeria-witnesses-1.3852025

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Boko Haram Islamic extremists brought back nearly all of the 110 girls they had kidnapped from a boarding school last month, dropping them off in the middle of the night Wednesday with a warning: "Don't ever put your daughters in school again."

Several of the girls interviewed by The Associated Press said they had been travelling for days before the convoy of vehicles arrived in the centre of the town of Dapchi around 2 a.m. Residents who had fled upon hearing that Boko Haram was headed their way watched from hiding as dozens of girls descended from the vehicles apparently unharmed.

"We were freed because we are Muslim girls and they didn't want us to suffer. That is why they released us," said Khadija Grema, one of the freed girls who said a Christian classmate remained captive.
The extraordinary development brought elation to most of the families, but more heartache for the relatives of the nine girls still unaccounted for. The sister of one of the girls still being held captive fainted Wednesday upon hearing news that she was not among those freed.

One 14-year-old released by the fighters told reporters that five girls had died. She did not provide other details and it was not immediately possible to independently verify her claim.

rbbm.

 

[ZaZara]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...g-women-children-terror-group-Boko-Haram.html

Now the Nigerian army has posted on their official Twitter account that captives have been rescued from the villages of Malamkari, Amchaka, Walasa and Gora.

In a series of Tweets they wrote: 'Troops of 22 Brigade deployed in operation LAFIYA DOLE has rescued over 1000 hostages from the Boko Haram Terrorists enclave.

'The operation which was conducted in conjunction with allies of Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), rescued the hostages from Malamkari, Amchaka, Walasa and Gora villages of Bama Local Government Area of Borno State.

'The hostages consisted mainly of women, children as well as some young men who were forced to become Boko Haram fighters.'

BBM