Finally Free:
Largest
Release
of Chibok
Girls from
Boko Haram
05-07-2017
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82 Chibok schoolgirls freed this weekend after being kidnapped three years ago by Boko Haram extremists, will meet with their families and the president of Nigeria on Sunday.
Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) aided Nigeria in securing the release of the girls after "lengthy negotiations" this weekend. President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement that Nigeria was thankful for their help.
"The president has repeatedly expressed his total commitment towards ensuring the safe return of the #ChibokGirls, and all other Boko Haram captives," the statement said, referring to the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign.
ICRC later released an image via Twitter of the girls boarding a helicopter to safety.
Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) aided Nigeria in securing the release of the girls after "lengthy negotiations" this weekend. President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement that Nigeria was thankful for their help.
"The president has repeatedly expressed his total commitment towards ensuring the safe return of the #ChibokGirls, and all other Boko Haram captives," the statement said, referring to the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign.
ICRC later released an image via Twitter of the girls boarding a helicopter to safety.
A happy site for families missing loved ones: Some of the 82 released #ChibokGirls board an aircraft.
Nigerian officials said the Chibok girls will meet with the president in the capital city of Abuja, Sunday.
The schoolgirls were freed in exchange for five detained suspected extremists on Saturday. It was the largest negotiated release since the mass abduction of nearly 300 girls in 2014, the Associated Press reports.
In October, the first group of 21 girls was released as Nigeria announced it had begun negotiations with the extremist group.
Before Saturday's release, 195 girls were held captive, but 113 still remain unaccounted for.
It is believed that some of the girls were strapped with explosives and sent on suicide missions.
According to the Associated Press, many of the captive girls, most of them Christian, were forced to marry their captors and give birth to children.
Family members said they were eagerly awaiting the list of names of those who were released. They added that their "hopes and expectations are high."
"This is good news to us," Christian pastor Enoch Mark told Agence France-Presse. "We have been waiting for this day. We hope the remaining girls will soon be released." His two daughters were among those kidnapped, but it was unclear whether his daughters had been freed.
Some of the girls' family members did not live to see their daughters released.
Boko Haram is still active in the area. The extremist group has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year uprising with the intent of creating an Islamic caliphate in northeastern Nigeria, Reuters reported.
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