Military says it has saved 234 more female captives
YOLA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s military rescued 234 more girls and women from a Boko Haram forest stronghold in the country’s northeast, the military announced Saturday.
More than 677 females have been released this week, as the Nigerian military continues its campaign to push the Islamic extremists out their last remaining strongholds in the Sambisa Forest.
“Another set of 234 women and children were rescued through the Kawuri and Konduga end of the #Sambisa Forest on Thursday,” said the Nigerian Defense Headquarters on its Twitter account Saturday.
The army has de- ployed ground troops into the forest after weeks of punishing air raids on the area.
“The assault on the forest is continuing from various fronts and efforts are concentrated on rescuing hostages ... and destroying all terrorist camps and facilities in the forest,” said Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade.
In recent weeks the military and troops from neighboring countries have taken back control of towns in northeastern Nigeria that had been held by Boko Haram and where the extremists had declared an Islamic caliphate.
Sambisa Forest is reported to be the militants’ last holdout. President Goodluck Jonathan, whose term ends this month, pledged Thurs- day to “hand over a Nigeria completely free of terrorist strongholds.”
It is not known how many girls, women, boys and men Boko Haram has kidnapped during its nearly 6-year-old rebellion. Nigeria’s army has reported rescuing only females.
Most of the females who have been released are traumatized, said army spokesman Col. Sani Usman. Nigeria’s military says it has flown in medical and intelligence teams to screen the rescued girls and women and find out their identities.
It is still not known if any are the schoolgirls kidnapped from a boarding school in Chibok town a year ago — a mass kidnapping that outraged much of the world.