In this photo, luggage belonging to the kidnapped girls remain in the dormitory in the Government Girls Science and Technical College Dapchi, Nigeria. (Source: AP)
Boko Haram extremists freed most of the 110 girls abducted from a Nigeria boarding institution a month ago and warned parents not to put their daughters in school again. The fighters rolled into Dapchi around 2 am in nine vehicles and the girls were left in the center of town. As terrified residents emerged from their homes, the extremists said, “We did it out of pity. And don’t ever put your daughters in school again.”
Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language. Nigeria’s information minister said 76 of the 110 schoolgirls had been confirmed freed. The fate of the remaining 34 schoolgirls is not clear. It was not known whether a ransom had been paid or Boko Haram fighters had been released in exchange for the girls’ freedom.
Family members were en route to the town on Wednesday morning. “When I get there we will do a head count to see if all of them have been released,” said Bashir Manzo, whose 16-year-old daughter was among those kidnapped during the February 19 attack. Manzo confirmed that his daughter was among those freed. “There is jubilation in Dapchi,” he said.
The mass abduction and the government response brought back painful memories of the 2014 attack on a boarding school in Chibok. Boko Haram militants abducted 276 girls, and about 100 of them have never returned. Some girls were forced to marry their captors, and many had children fathered by the militants.
Residents in Dapchi fled on Wednesday morning upon hearing that Boko Haram vehicles were headed towards the town. “We fled but, from our hiding, we could see them and surprisingly, we saw our girls getting out of the vehicles,” Umar Hassan said. “They assembled the girls and talked to them for some few minutes and left without any confrontation,” said another resident, Kachallah Musa.
Their release comes a day after an Amnesty International report accused the Nigerian military of failing to heed several warnings of the imminent attack last month. The military has called the report an “outright falsehood”. Nigeria’s government celebrated the girls’ release. “GREAT NEWS from Dapchi, Yobe State. Thank God for the safe return of our sisters. Alhamdulillah!” an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, Bashir Ahmad, said on Twitter.