Almost 300 girls rescued from Boko Haram in Nigeria: Military

Around 300 women and girls have been rescued from a Boko Haram Takfiri militant stronghold in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state, the military says.

“Troops have this afternoon captured and destroyed three camps of terrorists inside the Sambisa Forest and rescued 200 girls and 93 women,” AFP quoted military spokesman Chris Olukolade as saying on Tuesday.

It has not been verified if the rescued are the same “Chibok girls” who were kidnapped last year, he said adding, “The freed persons are now being screened and profiled.”

The spokesman did not specify when the rescued hostages’ identification would be completed.

On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram militants abducted 276 girls from a secondary school in Chibok in Borno state.

Fifty-seven of the girls managed to escape but 219 remained in captivity, reportedly in the Sambisa Forest.

Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, said he would “marry them off” or sell them as “slaves”.

The Takfiri militant group says its goal is to overthrow the government of Nigeria, and has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly shooting attacks and bombings in various parts of the country since the beginning of their militancy in 2009.

Over 13,000 people have died ever since and some 1.5 million have been forced from their homes.