Female captives rescued in Nigeria
The 300 women and girls might not include those Boko Haram took from Chibok.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — A Nigerian official on Wednesday dashed hope that the army’s rescue of nearly 300 Nigerian girls and women from a militant group’s forest camps meant that most or all of the missing schoolgirls abducted from Chibok town last year had been freed.
But the rescue Tuesday offered clues to the suffering of thousands of female captives taken by Boko Haram in recent years, with reports that some had been used as human shields for the group’s frontline fighters.
Amnesty International recently reported that Boko Haram had abducted at least 2,000 women and girls since the beginning of last year, including the 276 taken from a school near Chibok. Many were raped and forced into slavery, marriage or fighting for the group, it reported. Though dozens of the Chibok girls escaped, 219 are still missing.
Some Nigerian news reports said initially that the military had rescued the Chibok girls in the operation Tuesday, which freed 200 girls and 93 women. The Defense Ministry announced the rescue on Twitter after it invaded three bases in Boko Haram’s last stronghold, the Sambisa Forest.
Parents and supporters of the Chibok girls have run a high-profile campaign pressing for more action to win their release.
Army spokesman Sani Usman told news agencies Wednesday that those rescued were not the Chibok schoolgirls, but later said it was possible some might be among those freed. Military spokesman Chris Olukolade told reporters that the girls and women were still being screened to learn who they are and where they came from.
An unnamed intelligence official cited by the Associated Press said some of the captives in the Sambisa Forest camps were used as armed human shields, serving as the first line of defense around the bases.
It remains unclear whether some of the armed women were killed in the fighting. Also unclear was whether some of those removed from the forest were the legitimate wives of Boko Haram fighters rather than abductees.
The abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls roused global condemnation after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau announced via a video that he would sell them into slavery. Analysts believe the girls were split up.
The military said shortly after the abductions that they knew the location of the girls but wouldn’t launch a rescue operation because it would lead to mass casualties among the victims.
The abduction was one reason President Goodluck Jonathan lost his bid for reelection last month, heightening a perception of weakness and poor leadership as Boko Haram seized control of a large area of northeastern Nigeria, launching deadly attacks almost daily.
In recent months, however, Nigeria’s military has turned the fight around with the support of the armies of neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon as well as a group of mercenaries, many of them South Africans. It has taken back dozens of towns and villages and largely regained control of the road network, driving the insurgents into the dense Sambisa Forest.
A provincial government committee recently found about 400 decomposed bodies in the northeastern town of Damasak, which had been abandoned by Boko Haram. They were found in 20 mass graves, in houses, scattered in the streets and dumped in the river, committee member Babagana Mustapha told the Associated Press.