The Nigerian teenager was found alive in the country’s northeast after getting kidnapped by Boko Haram militants two years ago.
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But despite several reports, including by a former British envoy, that the girls’ exact location had been pinpointed by military surveillance, there has until now been little hope they would be seen again and talk of an armed rescue has been ruled out as too unsafe.
But the Chibok kidnapping remains their most infamous crime.
In what commentators called a “desperate bid to claim credit” for the escape of the first of the Chibok girls since the messy aftermath of the 2014 abduction of 219 girls, the Nigerian army on Wednesday said it had rescued a girl it identified as Falmata Mbalala.
The young woman already has provided valuable information, revealing that some of the Chibok girls have died in captivity and the others continue to be held hostage, according to Danladi. She was found wandering in the forest, uncle Yakubu Nkeki told The Associated Press.
Speaking to Pulse on Thursday, May 19 2016, a resident of Maiduguri, Tijjani Yusuf, said just as the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, had promised to sell the girls; numerous kidnapped students were married to the sect fighters.
Relatives of missing Nigerian schoolgirls have expressed their excitement over the rescue of one of the missing Chibok girls. However, 219 went missing since then.
As many as 276 girls were abducted by Boko Haram from their school at gunpoint on April 14, 2014.
He said that every girl has the right to education and should not be denied access to such.
Some people came together and formed the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, including US First Lady Michelle Obama, the Prime Minister David Cameron and education campaigner Malala Yousafzai.
“It was in the dead of night, from their dorms”. She was carrying a young child. It really touched the world consciousness.
Her rescue may give a boost to President Buhari, who vowed to crush the Boko Haram group when he was sworn into office in 2015. In a almost 7-year-old insurgency, Boko Haram has killed some 20,000 people and spread across Nigeria’s porous northern borders.
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Boko Haram, based mainly in Nigeria’s northern states but also responsible for attacks in neighboring countries, is seeking to implement sharia law.
