200 girls and 93 women have reportedly been rescued from Boko Haram terrorist camps in Nigeria.
Today the Nigerian military announced it had rescued the girls from their captors, Islamist terror group Boko Haram, by invading camps in the Sambisa forest in the country’s north-east.
The 293 released hostages have not yet been formally identified, but Nigerian officials have confirmed they do not include any of the 276 girls kidnapped from a secondary school in April of last year. The released hostages will be identified in coming days.
Sadly, the women and girls rescued make up only a small percentage of the total number kidnapped by Boko Haram since its insurgency began. The 293 rescued today and the 276 kidnapped last April are among approximately 2,000 others that have been taken hostage by the terrorist group.
Sambisa forest, where the girls rescued were being held in army barracks, sits in the northeast region of Nigeria. Boko Haram have a number of terror camps in the region and the forest itself is considered a Boko Haram stronghold. It is believed the girls kidnapped last April were taken to the same area to be held hostage.
Boko Haram’s insurgency, which began in 2009, has so far claimed 15,000 lives and has rendered 1.5 million people displaced or homeless.
The terror group’s kidnapping of the 276 girls from a high school in the northeast region last year brought unprecedented global attention to the insurgency.
On April 14, 2014, the terrorist group invaded a government high school in Chibok, Borno and kidnapped the 276 girls. 57 of them later escaped, but the remaining 217 have not been seen since. The girls were aged between 15 and 18.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau later said he planned to sell the girls as slaves or “marry them off”.
The kidnapping led to the global #bringbackourgirls campaign, endorsed by celebrities the world over, including First Lady Michelle Obama.
An important figure in the #bringbackourgirls campaign was Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, an advocate for the education of girls and women in Taliban-controlled Pakistan. Yousafzai was shot by Taliban officials as a result of her advocacy, but survived and has become a global campaigner in the years since. She is just 17 years old.
Yousafzai, among others, has criticised Nigerian leaders for not doing enough to find the girls and bring them to safety. She renewed her call for increased action on April 14 this year, which marked a year since their capture.
Yousafzai’s call for action on the first anniversary of the kidnappings was echoed by marches and vigils held in cities across the world asking governments to #bringbackourgirls.