Boko Haram women and girls rescued from forest

A "Bring Back Our Girls" protest group delivers a letter to then-President Goodluck Jonathan, calling for the release of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Chibok. (Photo: Reuters)

A group of women and children were rescued in Nigeria this week, although officials have not said where the captives were taken from. 

About 200 girls and 93 women were found in the forest in an area occupied by militant group Boko Haram. 

Army spokesman Col. Sani Usman said the victims are traumatised, and their physical and mental health will be evaluated by experts flown in by the military. 

The group was found in the Sambisa Forest in northeastern Nigeria, which officials said is the last stronghold of the Sunni Muslim extremists. There was initial hope that the rescued girls included the over 200 students taken in a mass kidnapping last year. 

On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram invaded an all-girls school in Chibok, Nigeria and forced over 270 girls into trucks. The militants then drove off into the forest. Over 50 abducted girls were able to escape, but hundreds remain in captivity.

The kidnapping drew international attention, but there has been no success in retrieving the students. Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, and other experts have stated that the likelihood of all of the missing girls coming home is nearly zero.

On Tuesday, Col. Usman said Tuesday that none of the rescued were from Chibok, but clarified his statement on Wednesday. 

"The processing is continuing, it involves a lot of things because most of them are traumatised and you have got to put them in a psychological frame of mind to extract information from them," he explained. 

The Sambisa Forest spans over 23,000 square miles, and the military destroyed four of many Boko Haram camps in the reserve. Usman said the military will continue to canvas the area and drive the militants out. 

 

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