Nigerian troops find kidnapped Chibok girl

Nigerian soldiers have found one of the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram jihadists eight years ago in the conflict-torn northeast, the military said Wednesday.

The attack on a girls’ boarding school in the town of Chibok in 2014 and the mass kidnapping that followed sparked international outrage and a global campaign called #BringBackOurGirls.

The military said on Twitter that troops on patrol had found the young woman, Mary Ngoshe, carrying a baby near Ngoshe village on Tuesday.

“Troops of 26 Task Force Brigade on patrol around Ngoshe in Borno State on 14 June 2022 intercepted one Mrs Mary Ngoshe and her son,” the statement said.

“She is believed to be one of the abducted girls from GGSS (Government Girls Secondary School) Chibok in 2014,” it added, releasing a picture of a young woman and a child.

Of the 276 pupils aged 12 to 17 who were abducted by the militants on April 14, 2014, 57 of the girls managed to escape by jumping off trucks they had been herded on.

An additional 80 others were later released in exchange for some detained Boko Haram commanders following back-channel talks with the Nigerian government.

More than a hundred girls remain missing. Some are believed to have been married off to jihadists according to propaganda videos released by Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s late leader.

Since the Chibok school mass abduction militants have carried out several mass abductions and deadly attacks on schools in northern Nigeria.

The violence has contributed to keeping students out of schools, and the UN estimates that more than 18.5 million Nigerian children have no access to education.