More than 50 of the Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militant group Boko Haram two months ago have been reunited with their families, leaving 219 still unaccounted for, a government official said today.
The militants stormed a secondary school in the village of Chibok on April 14, about 93 miles from Maiduguri - the cradle of the Islamist insurgency - and packed the teenagers onto trucks and disappeared into the border area near Cameroon.
So far, 57 of the girls have returned to their loved ones, Brigadier General Ibrahim Sabo, the chairman of the government's fact-finding committee on the kidnapping, said in a statement.
The attack shocked Nigerians, who have grown used to hearing about atrocities in the increasingly bloody five-year-old uprising in the north.
Villagers in Cameroon are living in fear of Boko Haram, who have been launching raids across the border from Nigera to snatch children, a report claims.
Hundreds of troops have been dispatched to the country's north, which shares a long border with Borno, the Nigerian state at the heart of the group's Islamist rebellion.
But despite the deployment of some of Cameroon's most-elite units, whole villages have been cleared out and schools torched by Boko Haram raids.
Villagers told Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford that Boko Haram fighters made daylight raids to snatch young boys to force them to take up arms as child soldiers.
One boy described how he was confronted by militants while out working in the fields. After he refused their invitation to join them the situation became tense but he was able to run away.
Cameroon shares a 1,243-mile border with Nigeria that is mostly unmanned. Nigeria has accused Cameroon of failing to stop Boko Haram using its territory as a safe haven.
But Cameroon's Defence Ministry spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Badjeck, rejected the claim.
'They are not in Cameroon. Why would we allow that? This is bad for Cameroon,' he told Sky New. 'We are suffering too at the hands of Boko Haram.'
Hundreds have been killed in attacks by Boko Haram this year alone. On Tuesday, at least 14 people were killed in the bomb attack in Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, which struck football fans watching the World Cup.
Witnesses said a tricycle taxi was driven into the outdoor area before the bomb went off.
Police said the death toll was 14, with 26 people wounded. One hospital worker told the BBC however that he had counted 21 bodies.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Boko Haram was suspected.
Police assistant superintendent Nathan Cheghan said rescue workers were being careful for fear of secondary explosions, often timed to kill people who rush to the scene of a bomb blast.
Last month an attack on a market place in the city of Jos, Plateau State, which used precisely that tactic to kill 118 in car-bomb blasts timed 30 minutes apart.
Other recent attacks include the slaughter of at least 200 civilians in three remote communities in Borno on June 2, a bombing at a football field in Mubi, Adamawa state, which killed at least 40, and attacks on the Borno towns of Gamboru and Ngala, in which as many as 336 are thought to have been killed.
Follow @henryodigwe
These are not the abducted Chibok girls, the girls would be found by an old woman, as Prophesy by Apostle Johnson Suleman.
ReplyDeleteReally? When did the good apostle make this prophesy? Did the prophesy include when the girls would be released? I want to know more about his prophesy so that I can tell the world.
ReplyDelete