Nigerian troops find kidnapped Chibok schoolgirl with baby
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Nigerian troops rescued one of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram extremists more than two years ago in a predawn raid Saturday on a forest hideout. She had a 10-month-old baby boy born to a Boko Haram fighter, said a statement from army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman.
It was the first army rescue of a Chibok girl.
Last month, Nigeria’s government secured the freedom of 21 of the Chibok schoolgirls in the first such release negotiated with Boko Haram. Another girl escaped in May on her own.
Thousands of other Boko Haram captives have been freed this year as the military has forced the extremists out of towns and villages in northeastern Nigeria, where they had declared an Islamic caliphate.
But until Saturday, none proved to be among the 276 schoolgirls seized from northeastern Chibok town in April 2014. Dozens of them escaped within hours.
President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to secure the release of the nearly 200 schoolgirls who remain captive.
The failures of successive governments and security forces to free the girls brought international condemnation and the creation of a movement called Bring Back Our Girls.
Some 20,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram’s seven-year Islamic uprising that has spread across borders and forced 2.6 million refugees from their homes.