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BOKO HARAM ISLAMISTS who kidnapped 110 schoolgirls in Dapchi, northeast Nigeria, just over a month ago have so far returned 101 of the students to the town, the government said today.
Information Minister Lai Mohammed said the girls were released “unconditionally”.
“No money changed hands,” he told reporters in the capital, Abuja.
He added:
“As of now, the number (of girls confirmed to have been released) has increased to 101.”
Fatima Gremah, 13, who was among those released, earlier told reporters: “Boko Haram said we were lucky we were young and also Muslims.
“One of us who is a Christian has been left behind. They said they would keep her until she converted.
“If she converts, they will release her. She is the only one among us left behind.”
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari said last week the government had “chosen negotiation” to secure the return of the Dapchi girls rather than use military force.
Mohammed had earlier said their release was the result of “back-channel efforts” with the help of “some friends of the country”, without elaborating.
Military operations in and around Dapchi had been suspended “to ensure free passage” of the girls and also to ensure “that lives were not lost”, he added.
Nigeria’s presidency said separately the girls were in the custody of the country’s intelligence agency, the Department of State Services.
‘Five died en route’
The Dapchi kidnapping on 19 February brought back painful memories of a similar abduction in Chibok in April 2014, when more than 200 girls were taken.
Aisha Alhaji Deri, a 16-year-old student who was among those kidnapped in Dapchi, told reporters they were not mistreated during their time in captivity.
But she added:
“When we were being taken away, five of us died on the way.
They brought us back this morning, dropped us outside the motor park and said we should all go home and not go to the military because they will claim to have rescued us.
Fatima Gremah and another girl, Amira Adamu Mohammed, 16, both also said they were not mistreated and were given food to cook.
Fatima indicated they were held on an island on Lake Chad, which is a known stronghold for fighters loyal to Boko Haram factional leader Abu Mus’ab al-Barnawi.
‘Three days by boat’
“They just told us on Saturday to get onto boats. We spent three days on the water before coming to shore, then they put us in vehicles and said they were taking us back home,” she said.
Parents earlier told AFP the girls were brought back to Dapchi in nine vehicles at about 8.00 am. Some of the students headed to their homes in surrounding villages.
Bashir Manzo, who heads a parents’ support group in Dapchi, said:
“These girls were not accompanied by any security personnel.
Their abductors brought them, dropped them outside the school and left, without talking to anyone.
Parents in the remote town said the girls had been taken for medical check-ups after their ordeal.
Kidnapping as strategy
Boko Haram has used kidnapping as a weapon of war during its nearly nine-year insurgency which has claimed at least 20,000 lives and made more than two million others homeless.
The Islamic State (IS) group affiliate has not claimed responsibility for the abduction but given the location, Barnawi and his fighters have been blamed.
In August 2015, IS publicly backed Barnawi as leader of Boko Haram, or Islamic State West Africa Province, over Abubakar Shekau, whose supporters carried out the Chibok abduction.
Analysts have attributed a financial motive to the Dapchi kidnapping given government ransom payments made to Boko Haram to secure the release of some of the captives from Chibok.
Yesterday, Amnesty International claimed that the military ignored repeated warnings about the movements of Boko Haram fighters before the kidnapping.
The military rejected the allegation, calling it an “outright falsehood”.
Similar claims were made about the hours leading up to the abduction of 219 mostly Christian girls from Chibok, which brought sustained worldwide attention on the conflict for the first time.
The Chibok abduction also triggered a global campaign for their release, spearheaded by the US former first lady Michelle Obama.
There was no similar campaign for the Dapchi girls.
Since May 2016, 107 Chibok girls have escaped, been found or been released as part of a government-brokered deal with the jihadists.
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Didn’t think we had woodpeckers in ireland
@liam mc meel: shoot
@Philip Murphy: shoot them or se
@liam mc meel: I’ve been listening to them chipping away at the trees for a good few years now. Sounds like a machine gun being shot in the distance
@michael odwyer: Indeed! They can heard rattling away at the metal tops of telegraph poles along the banks of Lough Erne. Some noise to experience!
@liam mc meel: they are pecking up their passports on the way over.
@liam mc meel: only in last 20 years. They flew in from Wales.
@liam mc meel: It’s amazing, I’ve never seen one here. I was going to say they’re very striking :-D
Ha ha ha HA ha, Ha ha ha HA ha, heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!
Can’t comment on Finland taking action on illegal immigration. Why?
@paulinlavally@gmail.com: because the government told them not to let you
How about the so called professionals ESB put the electrical infrastructure underground? No let’s blame the woodpecker. And the top brass are earning €100,000s.
@robbie scanlon: How much do you think it would cost to put all the cables underground, billions? Are you willing to pay this extra on your bill? We allow one off developments and this is some of the cost associated with it.
@The next small thing: The cost, the cost, oh what about the cost.
These people are making hundreds of millions per year, let them upgrade their own infrastructure or get out of the game and let someone in that will think of everyone, including our animals.
You wanna punish the animal for getting in the way of capitalism!
@David: Bless your naivety if you think the end customer won’t pay the cost. I never mentioned animals in my comment so I don’t know why you brought that up however seeing as you have then surely you are against one off developments which destroys their habitat.
@robbie scanlon: why not blame the Donald
These woodpeckers are live wires with no forwarding address or postal code for billing purposes
@Jerry Collins: brilliant!!
They’re Welsh, not Poles. [Insert rant of choice about migrants]
Still not as irritating as the noise Mary Toilet makes when she opens her gob
@Peter Murray: and now your having a conversation with yourself
@Peter Murray: jeez Man are you ok??
Are those woodpeckers migrants from Wales.Shouldnt they be in direct provision and be made to apply for asylum
Wood (oops Would) treating telegraph poles with tar deter woodpeckers from damaging them?
@Garreth Byrne:
Not much fun if you are the worker that has to climb that pole after….
@Garreth Byrne: Or maybe change the material of the pole and stop punishing the wood pecker for being a wood pecker?
Nial “Hatch”…….. born for the job:)
@Edward Hughes: Ya gotta wonder if the name provoked his interest.
Amazing to have so many of them they run out of trees. We need more native trees and less conifer plantations…
Everyone says I’m paranoid for starting these Morse code lessons ,but I’m positive those woodpeckers are talking sh,t .
Seriously though, why have shops stopped stocking strawberries? Usually imported from Spain this time of year.
@Fintan Stack: oh Maaann!! Good point even though it’s such a First World problem… I used to grow my own I’d defo recommend it x
@Fintan Stack: parsnips from Spain too
Pesky woodpeckers, coming over here, taking our poles, messing with our trees! Round them all up and send them back! ;- )
@Mick Hanna: lol love it!!
These woodpeckers are live wires
Are these immigrant woodpeckers ?
Woodpeckers will not eat timber treated with creosote
Would these nests effect the overall structure safety and useable of these poles. I wouldn’t think so why not leave be.
Is this English?
Would these nests effect the overall structure safety and useable of these poles. I wouldn’t think so why not leave be.
@J M: “affect”. Apparently they do, since they are causing power outages.
Would these nests effect the overall structure safety and useable of these poles. I wouldn’t think so why not leave be.
Is this meant to be English?
Would they not set up the old poles they had to replace, so the birds can still nest in them? Or add new ones nearby that are shielded & leave the inhabited ones in place?
have your say