Boko Haram returns girls to Nigerian town
A month after the kidnapping, the militants bring back the students along with a warning.
LAGOS, Nigeria — Boko Haram militants on Wednesday returned an unknown number of the 110 girls abducted from their boarding school a month ago, along with an ominous warning, witnesses said.
The fighters rolled into the northeastern town of Dapchi about 2 a.m. in nine vehicles, and the girls were left in the center of town. As terrified residents emerged from their homes, the militants said, “This is a warning to you all,” according to resident Baana Musa.
“We did it out of pity. And don’t ever put your daughters in school again,” the militants told the residents. Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language.
It was unclear how many of the 110 girls had been freed. Family members were en route to the town Wednesday.
“When I get there, we will do a head count to see if all of them have been released,” said Bashir Manzo, whose 16-year-old daughter was among those kidnapped during the Feb. 19 attack.
Manzo confirmed that his daughter was among those freed.
“As I speak to you, there is jubilation in Dapchi,” he said to a reporter.
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 their captors, and many had children fathered by the militants.
Residents in Dapchi fled on Wednesday morning after hearing that Boko Haram vehicles were headed toward the town.
“We fled but, from our hiding, we could see them and surprisingly, we saw our girls getting out of the vehicles,” Umar Hassan said.
Their release came a day after an Amnesty International report accused the Nigerian military of failing to heed several warnings of the imminent attack last month. The military has called the report an “outright falsehood.”
Nigeria’s government celebrated the girls’ release. “GREAT NEWS from Dapchi, Yobe State. Thank God for the safe return of our sisters. Alhamdulillah!” Bashir Ahmad, an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, said on Twitter.