Missing Chibok Schoolgirl Found with Baby, Nigerian Army Says

Lagos, 06 Safar 2016/06 November 2016 (MINA) – One of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2014 was found Saturday by the Nigerian army, the army said.

She was discovered carrying a 10-month-old son among a group that had escaped from a Boko Haram hideout in Sambisa Forest, the army said.

“This morning as part of the operation we’ve been conducting, we rescued one of the Chibok girls. … Our troops in Pulka rescued her along with a Boko Haram member,” CNN quoted Major General Lucky Irabor as saying at a press briefing Saturday.

“And of course, the baby, you can see with her, is a 10-month-old baby.”

The girl, identified as Maryam Ali Maiyanga, is said to have been among the 276 girls and women that Boko Haram militants herded from bed in the middle of the night at a boarding school in Chibok in April 2014.

As many as 57 girls escaped almost immediately.

One was found in May. She apparently wandered out of a forest, asking for help, accompanied by a baby, according to witnesses.

Saturday’s announcement comes nearly a month after 21 Chibok girls were freed in a deal brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government.

That release followed an apparent split in the terror group, with ISIS introducing a new leader, according to a Boko Haram insider. Boko Haram has long had links with ISIS, pledging allegiance to the Islamic militant group in March 2015.

Roughly 196 girls are still unaccounted for. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)