57 abducted schoolgirls make it home

MORE than 50 of the Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militant group Boko Haram two months ago have been reunited with their families leaving 19 still unaccounted for.

The militants stormed a secondary school in the village of Chibok about 93 miles from Maiduguri – the cradle of the Islamist insurgency – and forced the teenagers on to trucks before disappearing into the border area near Cameroon.

So far 57 of the girls have returned to their loved ones according to Brigadier General Ibrahim Sabo, head of a Nigerian government inquiry into the kidnapping.

The attack on April 14 shocked Nigerians who have grown used to atrocities in the increasingly bloody five-year uprising in the north.

Boko Haram fighters are also reported to have been trying to kidnap young boys to force them to become child soldiers. Cameroon shares a largely unguarded 1, 43-mile border with Nigeria which has accused it of failing to stop Boko Haram using its territory as a safe haven.

Hundreds have died in attacks by the group this year.