Scores of kidnapped students freed in Nigeria

Scores of female students kidnapped by Islamic militants from a north-eastern Nigerian school are free, the military has reported.

Scores of kidnapped students freed in Nigeria

Scores of female students kidnapped by Islamic militants from a north-eastern Nigerian school are free, the military has reported.

Only eight of more than 100 students are unaccounted for, Major General Chris Olukolade said in a statement that gave no further details.

“The others have been freed this evening,” he said.

The government had said security forces were in hot pursuit of militants who abducted more than 100 females from a high school early on Tuesday.

Borno state governor Kashim Shettima told reporters that 129 students were kidnapped and at least 14 freed themselves: four of the students – aged between 16 and 18 – jumped off the back of a truck and 10 escaped into the bush when the extremists were not paying attention.

The abductions came hours after an explosion blamed on extremists killed 75 people in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, angering citizens who are questioning government and military claims that they are containing a five-year-old Islamic uprising. Two more attacks killed 20 people on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in north-eastern Nigerian villages.

While the military claims to have cornered insurgents in a remote north-east corner of the West African nation, attacks have increased in frequency and become more deadly. More than 1,500 people have been killed this year, compared with an estimated 3,600 between 2010 and 2013.

Mr Shettima told reporters the insurgents arrived at Chibok Government Secondary School for Girls wearing military fatigues and posing as soldiers – a common tactic used by the insurgents. His information came from the school principal, who believed the men were soldiers removing the young women for their own safety.

It was only as the armed men were leaving, and started shooting, that he realised his mistake, Mr Shettima said. The militants killed a soldier and a police officer guarding the school, officials said.

Such attacks are typical of the Boko Haram terrorist network – the name means “Western education is sinful” – which has vowed to force an Islamic state on Nigeria – Africa’s most populous nation of 180 million people divided almost equally between mainly Muslims in the north and a predominantly Christian south.

Nigeria has Africa’s biggest economy but 70% of the population lives below the poverty line and the north east suffers the most poverty. Only 5% of children get to high school, and only a small percentage of those are girls. The government closed all schools in Borno three weeks ago, but those who were kidnapped were recalled so they could do their final exams.

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