Extremists return 100 girls they abducted from boarding school last month
BOKO Haram extremists have returned almost all of the 110 girls abducted from their Nigerian boarding school a month ago with an ominous warning, witnesses said.
The fighters rolled into Dapchi at 2am local time in nine vehicles and the girls were left in the centre of town. As terrified residents emerged from their homes, the extremists said “this is a warning to you all”, resident Ba’ana Musa told the Associated Press.
“We did it out of pity. And don’t ever put your daughters in school again,” the extremists said.
Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language.
Nigeria’s government said 101 of the 110 schoolgirls had been confirmed freed and that the number “would be updated after the remaining ones have been documented”.
“No ransoms were paid,” information minister Lai Mohammed said in a statement. The girls were released “through back-channel efforts and with the help of some friends of the country, and it was unconditional”.
Family members travelled to the town on Wednesday morning.
“When I get there we will do a headcount to see if all of them have been released,” said Bashir Manzo, whose 16-year-old daughter was among those freed after being kidnapped on February 19.
The mass abduction and the government response brought back painful memories of the 2014 attack on a boarding school in Chibok.
Boko Haram militants abducted 276 girls, and about 100 of them have never returned. Some girls were forced to marry, and many had children fathered by the militants.
The latest mass abduction is thought to have been carried out by a Boko Haram splinter group aligned with Islamic State.
Residents in Dapchi fled yesterday morning upon hearing that Boko Haram vehicles were heading towards the town.
“We fled but, from our hiding, we could see them and surprisingly, we saw our girls getting out of the vehicles,” said Umar Hassan. “They assembled the girls and talked to them for some few minutes and left without any confrontation,” said another resident, Kachallah Musa.
The girls were taken to hospital in Dapchi. As with the released Chibok schoolgirls, “they will be quarantined and counselled before they go back to their schools”.