The
undated image taken from video on Aug. 14, 2016 shows an alleged Boko
Haram soldier standing in front of a group of girls alleged to be some
of the 276 abducted Chibok schoolgirls held since April 2014, in an
unknown location. Right: "Bring Back Our Girls" co-founder Obiageli
Ezekwesili, left, console Esther Yakubu, mother of one of the kidnapped
school girls, after she saw her daughter in a video release by Boko
haram during a briefing in Abuja, Nigeria in Aug. 14, 2016.
After
a negotiation between the government and Boko Haram extremists, 21
Nigeria’s Chibok schoolgirls have been released from the Boko
Haram captivity Thursday morning, according to a Nigerian military
source.
Earlier, this message have been circulated by the Nigeria government through several tweets. The schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram more than two years ago.
The girls, who have not been named, remain in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, according to a CNN report.
The Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamic extremists more than two years ago have been freed in negotiations, officials said Thursday.
Some 197 girls remain captive, though it is not known how many of them may have died.
The freed girls, the first to be released as a result of government action, are in the custody of Nigeria's Department of State Services, Nigeria's secret intelligence agency, according to presidential spokesman Garba Shehu.
He said their release was negotiated between the government and Boko Haram in talks brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government. He said negotiations will continue for the release of the other students.
The girls were exchanged for four Boko Haram prisoners in Banki in northeast Nigeria, AFP news agency said quoting a local source.
"For some time now there has been some negotiations between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram," reports Al Jazeera.
The offer that indicates to free the girls in exchange for detained leaders of the group was unclear if an exchange has taken place. The ICRC in the past had tried to negotiate a swap, which failed.
Information Minister Lai Mohammed said last month that negotiations last year ended when Boko Haram demanded a ransom of $5.2 billion for the girls' freedom.
The abduction of 276 schoolgirls in April 2014 and the government's failure to quickly free them has caused international outrage and brought Boko Haram, Nigeria's home-grown Islamic extremist group, to the world's attention. Dozens of the girls escaped on their own, but most remain missing.
In May, one of the girls, Amina Ali Nkeki, escaped on her own. Shortly after her release Nkeki told her family that some of the kidnapped girls died of illness and that others, like her, have been married to fighters and are pregnant or already have babies, her mother told the press.
Since then Nkeki has been in the custody of the secret service where she is receiving medical care and trauma counseling, according to President Muhammadu Buhari's government. The government has been criticized for keeping her isolated. The Bring Back Our Girls group and Human Rights Watch have asked whether Nkeki now is a detainee of the government.
A Nigerian girl who escaped in mid-May this year was one of the 219 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok school in a mass abduction in 2014 that sparked international outrage. A May 19 raid on a Boko Haram camp liberated some 97 women and children and killed 35 extremists, said the Nigerian army.
Boko Haram appears to be fractured by a leadership struggle as the Islamic State group announced it had a new leader in August end.
Boko Haram — which means "Western education is forbidden — resurfaced as a deadly force under Shekau, who took over after a military raid on the group's compound in Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast, killed some 700 people and captured leader Mohammed Yusuf was assassinated in police custody.
Earlier, this message have been circulated by the Nigeria government through several tweets. The schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram more than two years ago.
The girls, who have not been named, remain in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, according to a CNN report.
The Chibok girls kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamic extremists more than two years ago have been freed in negotiations, officials said Thursday.
Some 197 girls remain captive, though it is not known how many of them may have died.
The freed girls, the first to be released as a result of government action, are in the custody of Nigeria's Department of State Services, Nigeria's secret intelligence agency, according to presidential spokesman Garba Shehu.
He said their release was negotiated between the government and Boko Haram in talks brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government. He said negotiations will continue for the release of the other students.
The girls were exchanged for four Boko Haram prisoners in Banki in northeast Nigeria, AFP news agency said quoting a local source.
"For some time now there has been some negotiations between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram," reports Al Jazeera.
The offer that indicates to free the girls in exchange for detained leaders of the group was unclear if an exchange has taken place. The ICRC in the past had tried to negotiate a swap, which failed.
Information Minister Lai Mohammed said last month that negotiations last year ended when Boko Haram demanded a ransom of $5.2 billion for the girls' freedom.
The abduction of 276 schoolgirls in April 2014 and the government's failure to quickly free them has caused international outrage and brought Boko Haram, Nigeria's home-grown Islamic extremist group, to the world's attention. Dozens of the girls escaped on their own, but most remain missing.
In May, one of the girls, Amina Ali Nkeki, escaped on her own. Shortly after her release Nkeki told her family that some of the kidnapped girls died of illness and that others, like her, have been married to fighters and are pregnant or already have babies, her mother told the press.
Since then Nkeki has been in the custody of the secret service where she is receiving medical care and trauma counseling, according to President Muhammadu Buhari's government. The government has been criticized for keeping her isolated. The Bring Back Our Girls group and Human Rights Watch have asked whether Nkeki now is a detainee of the government.
A Nigerian girl who escaped in mid-May this year was one of the 219 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok school in a mass abduction in 2014 that sparked international outrage. A May 19 raid on a Boko Haram camp liberated some 97 women and children and killed 35 extremists, said the Nigerian army.
Boko Haram appears to be fractured by a leadership struggle as the Islamic State group announced it had a new leader in August end.
Boko Haram — which means "Western education is forbidden — resurfaced as a deadly force under Shekau, who took over after a military raid on the group's compound in Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast, killed some 700 people and captured leader Mohammed Yusuf was assassinated in police custody.
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