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234 women and girls rescued in Sambisa Forest
It was not immediately clear if any of these girls were abducted in April 2014 from a school
Nigerian troops have rescued an additional 234 women and girls in the Sambisa Forest, a stronghold for Boko Haram militants, a Nigerian military spokesman said Friday.
It was not immediately clear whether any of the girls rescued Thursday were “Chibok girls,” the military said.
That April 2014 mass abduction of more than 200 girls from the school in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok sparked a social media movement, #BringBackOurGirls. There’s been no sign of them since.
About 450 women and girls were rescued earlier this week as the military entered the forest in northeast Nigeria looking for Boko Haram camps.
The Nigerian military operation is continuing on various fronts and efforts are concentrated on the rescue of civilian hostages and the destruction of Boko Haram camps, Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, information director for the Nigerian military, said in a statement.
The women and children who were rescued Thursday have been evacuated to join other former hostages to take part in the screening process, Olukolade, said.
Boko Haram has said its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.
More than 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by Boko Haram since last year, according to Amnesty International.
CNN’s Nana Karikari-apau contributed to this report.
