The girls went missing after jihadists stormed their school in the town of Dapchi in the north-eastern Yobe state on 19 February.

President Muhammadu Buhari said it was a “national disaster” and apologised to the girls’ families.

The attack has revived memories of the Chibok schoolgirl abduction in 2014.

Distraught relatives are demanding answers from the Nigerian authorities

Anger has been growing among the girls’ parents amid reports that soldiers had been withdrawn from key checkpoints in Dapchi last month.

Dapchi, which is about 275km (170 miles) north-west of Chibok, came under attack last Monday, causing students and teachers from the Government Girls Science and Technical College to flee into the surrounding bush.

Residents say that Nigeria’s security forces, backed by military jets, later repelled the attack.

Authorities initially denied the students had been kidnapped, saying they were hiding from their attackers.

But they later admitted that 110 girls were missing after the attack.

Parents of the missing girls check student lists in Dapchi

Boko Haram militants have been fighting a long insurgency in the country’s north in their quest for an Islamic state in the region.

Nearly four years ago they abducted 276 girls from a school in Chibok, leading to a worldwide #BringBackOurGirls campaign. The location of more than 100 of those girls is still unknown.

The conflict is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people, and led to the abduction of thousands.

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Source: BBC

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The girls went missing after jihadists stormed their school in the town of Dapchi in the north-eastern Yobe state on 19 February.

President Muhammadu Buhari said it was a “national disaster” and apologised to the girls’ families.

The attack has revived memories of the Chibok schoolgirl abduction in 2014.

Anger has been growing among the girls’ parents amid reports that soldiers had been withdrawn from key checkpoints in Dapchi last month.

Dapchi, which is about 275km (170 miles) north-west of Chibok, came under attack last Monday, causing students and teachers from the Government Girls Science and Technical College to flee into the surrounding bush.

Residents say that Nigeria’s security forces, backed by military jets, later repelled the attack.

Authorities initially denied the students had been kidnapped, saying they were hiding from their attackers.

But they later admitted that 110 girls were missing after the attack.

Boko Haram militants have been fighting a long insurgency in the country’s north in their quest for an Islamic state in the region.

Nearly four years ago they abducted 276 girls from a school in Chibok, leading to a worldwide #BringBackOurGirls campaign. The location of more than 100 of those girls is still unknown.

The conflict is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people, and led to the abduction of thousands.

–

Source: BBC

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The 475 suspects will be returned to their home states for “proper rehabilitation” before being sent back to their families, a justice ministry statement said on Sunday.

Those detained were arrested on suspicion they belonged to Boko Haram or had concealed information about the group’s plans or fighters’ whereabouts.

“However, the Prosecution Counsel could not charge them with any offence due to lack of sufficient evidence against them. Therefore, the suspects were released,” the statement said.

The court proceedings in the town of Kainji, in central Niger state, was part of the second phase of an unprecedented mass trial of more than 1,600 suspects.

Some of the cases heard last week involved suspects held without trial since 2010.

Among those released was a young girl with a three-month-old baby from Borno State who was taken to a Boko Haram enclave by her brother and married off to his friend when she was 11. She was arrested in 2014 while trying to escape.

The Kainji court sentenced 20 Boko Haram members to between two and 15 years in jail last week.

It also imposed a second 15-year sentence on Haruna Yahaya, 35, who was involved in the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from the Chibok region.

Earlier in the week, he had been jailed for 15 years but the court handed him an additional 15-year term on Friday, with the judge saying the two sentences would run consecutively.

In total, some 1,669 people have been processed in a string of mass hearings that began in October.

Most were men, but some women and children were also jailed. Nigeria was criticised by human rights groups for holding them for years without trial, or even contact with a lawyer.

After the first phase of the trial in October, 45 Boko Haram fighters were sentenced to between three to 31 years in jail, while about 500 people were discharged.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and two million forced to flee their homes in northeastern Nigeria since Boko Haram launched a rebellion in 2009 aimed at creating an Islamic state.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari recently said the era of Boko Haram violence “is gradually drawing to end”. However, the group continues to launch attacks in the country’s northeast and its leader remains at large.

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Source: Aljazeera

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An army spokesperson, Col Timothy Antigha, said they had fled several islands in Lake Chad and arrived in the town of Monguno, in Borno state.

There has been no independent verification of the army’s claim.

A BBC correspondent says the escapes are likely to have happened over a period of time, not in one go.

The military says a recent armed forces operation, Deep Punch II, has weakened Boko Haram.

In his New Year address, President Muhammadu Buhari said the group had been “beaten”.

In a post on the HQ Nigerian Army Facebook page, Col Antigha said the 700 comprised “farmers, fishermen and members of their families who were hitherto held by Boko Haram terrorists as farm workers”.

He said the recent operation “was targeted at destroying Boko Haram infrastructure and logistics; such as communication centres, fabrication yards, bomb making equipment, vehicles and other means of sustenance”.

“The ensuing collapse of their command structure and means of survival have therefore triggered the abandonment of the islands and escape of the abductees,” he wrote.

Col Antigha said the escapees were being profiled to ensure there were no militants hidden among them.

He also said two women among the escaped captives had given birth safely at a military holding facility.

Over eight years, Boko Haram’s campaign of Islamist violence has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million.

Despite the authorities’ insistence that the group has been vanquished, in recent months Boko Haram fighters have stepped up their attacks on military and civilian targets.

–

Source: BBC

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His redeployment to an unspecified post follows a string of attacks by the insurgents, including the killing of at least 50 people in a mosque last month.

No official reason was given for Maj Gen Ibrahim Attahiru’s removal.

Army chief Gen Tukur Buratai gave him a deadline in July to deliver Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau dead or alive within 40 days.

At least 20,000 people have been killed and thousands more abducted since Boko Haram launched its insurgency in north-eastern Nigeria in 2009.

President Muhammadu Buhari took office in May 2015 with a pledge to beat back the militants.

About seven months later, he declared that Boko Haram had been “technically defeated” after the army recaptured most territory that had fallen to it.

However, Boko Haram has continued carrying out bomb and gun attacks in the north-east.

In July, more than 40 people died during a military operation to free people who had been ambushed in a convoy by the militants.

The dead included soldiers and an oil exploration team.

Maj Gen Attahiru Ibrahim was appointed to lead the offensive against Boko Haram in the north-east in May this year.

He has been replaced with another general, Nicholas Rogers, who led a special military and police force to tackle ethnic clashes in the volatile central region.

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Source: BBC

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The survey, the first of its kind in Africa, profiled nearly 500 voluntary recruits to militant groups including al-Shabab and Boko Haram.

Finding a job is “the most acute need at the time of joining a group,” the report finds.

It also points to government action as a “tipping point”.

Most of those surveyed reported unhappy childhoods and a lack of parental supervision.

Researchers from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) spoke to recruits in Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Cameroon and Niger to compile the report.

Al-Shabab is based in Somalia but often stages attacks in Kenya, while Nigeria’s Boko Haram group has also spread to neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.

The researchers also interviewed people of similar backgrounds to those recruited, but who did not become radicalised.

Based on these sample groups, they say that receiving “at least six years of religious schooling [is] shown to reduce the likelihood of joining an extremist group by as much as 32%”.

Recruitment is “predominantly face-to-face” rather than online as outside Africa, and the report says that many recruits come from borderland areas that have “suffered generations of marginalisation”.

The killing or arrest of a family member or friend is a key trigger, according to the report, with over 70% of interviewees saying this or another form of government action was the “tipping point” before the final decision to join a militant group.

Intervention at a local level is the best way to prevent young people from being radicalised, the UNDP report authors say.

They suggest “community-led initiatives aimed at social cohesion” and “amplifying the voices of local religious leaders who advocate tolerance”.

“The messenger… is as important as the message,” says UNDP Africa Director Abdoulaye Mar Dieye.

“That trusted local voice is also essential to reducing the sense of marginalisation that can increase vulnerability to recruitment,” he adds.

–

Source: BBC

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At least five members of an oil exploration team were killed and soldiers also died.

Army chiefs have now been ordered to relocate to the affected area.

The high number of casualties will be a blow for the government, which insists the insurgency is all but defeated.

At least 20,000 people have been killed and thousands more abducted since Boko Haram launched its insurgency in the city of Maiduguri, north-east Nigeria, in 2009.

In the most notorious abduction case, it seized 276 girls from a boarding school in the north-eastern town of Chibok in 2014.

It has since freed more than 100 of the girls, in exchange for the release of its fighters detained by Nigeria’s security forces.

‘Death toll mounting’

Details of what happened on Tuesday remain unclear, with initial reports from the army suggesting the abducted geologists and surveyors, who worked at the University of Maiduguri, had been rescued.

On Tuesday, the army said the bodies of nine Nigerian soldiers and a civilian had been recovered.

But now the university has said at least five members of staff, including two academics and a driver, were killed when the heavily armed convoy made its way back to Maiduguri, in north-east Nigeria.

Several others remain missing.

“We got the impression our staff on the team were rescued because that was what the military spokesman said yesterday,” Maiduguri University spokesman Dani Mamman said, quoted by AFP.

“But we were shocked when we were given four dead bodies. This means it wasn’t a rescue. We still have other staff that are yet to be accounted for.”

Sources told the BBC that more than 40 people, most of them soldiers and volunteers from a vigilante group, had been killed in total – although other sources suggest the number killed may rise further still.

“The death toll keeps mounting,” a source told AFP, adding: “More bodies are coming in.”

–

Source: BBC

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The 82 girls, who were part of a huge group kidnapped from their school in 2014, are in the care of security services in the capital, Abuja.

Their parents travelled by bus through the night to meet their daughters.

More than 100 of the 276 girls, taken from the town of Chibok, are still being held by the militant group. Their whereabouts are unknown.
The reunion in Abuja had a celebratory atmosphere, with music and dance.

The BBC’s Alistair Leithead says the girls were already dancing when their parents got off the bus and raced towards them, in an emotional reunion.

The 82 young women were only freed two weeks earlier in exchange for five Boko Haram militants.

The most recent group freed was supposed to have 83 girls – but one refused to leave, saying she was happy and had found a husband, a Nigerian government spokesman said.

The freed girls remain in government care – under the eye of security services who are questioning them about their time spent as captives.

After the girls were abducted from their school in April 2014, a massive global awareness campaign began, using the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

The Chibok girls represent a fraction of the women captured by the militant group, estimates for which number in the thousands.

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Source: BBC

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They were handed over in exchange for Boko Haram suspects after negotiations.

The girls will be received by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Sunday, a statement said.

The abduction of the so-called “Chibok girls” triggered a global outcry and sparked a huge social media campaign.

Before the latest release, about 195 of the girls were still missing.

The number of Boko Haram suspects released by authorities remains undisclosed.

The 82 schoolgirls are now in the custody of the Nigerian army and were brought by road convoy from a remote area to a military base in Banki near the border with Cameroon, reports the BBC’s Stephanie Hegarty from Lagos.

Our reporter says that many families in Chibok will be rejoicing at this latest news, but more than 100 of the girls taken have yet to be returned.

Christian pastor Enoch Mark, whose two daughters were among those kidnapped, told Agence France-Presse: “This is good news to us. We have been waiting for this day. We hope the remaining girls will soon be released.” It was unclear whether his daughters had been freed.

A statement from a spokesman for President Buhari said he was deeply grateful to “security agencies, the military, the Government of Switzerland, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and local and international NGOs” for playing a role in the operation.

After the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno state, was raided in April 2014, more than 50 girls quickly escaped and Boko Haram then freed another 21 last October, after negotiations with the Red Cross.

The campaign for the return of the girls drew the support of then US First Lady Michelle Obama and many Hollywood stars.

Last month, President Buhari said the government remained “in constant touch through negotiations, through local intelligence to secure the release of the remaining girls and other abducted persons unharmed”.

Many of the Chibok girls were Christian, but were encouraged to convert to Islam and to marry their kidnappers during their time in captivity.

Boko Haram has kidnapped thousands of other people during its eight-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in north-eastern Nigeria.

More than 30,000 others have been killed, the government says, and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee from their homes.

–

Source: BBC

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They were handed over in exchange for Boko Haram suspects after negotiations.

The girls will be received by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Sunday, a statement said.

The abduction of the so-called “Chibok girls” triggered a global outcry and sparked a huge social media campaign.

Before the latest release, about 195 of the girls were still missing.

The number of Boko Haram suspects released by authorities remains undisclosed.

The 82 schoolgirls are now in the custody of the Nigerian army and were brought by road convoy from a remote area to a military base in Banki near the border with Cameroon, reports the BBC’s Stephanie Hegarty from Lagos.

Our reporter says that many families in Chibok will be rejoicing at this latest news, but more than 100 of the girls taken have yet to be returned.

Christian pastor Enoch Mark, whose two daughters were among those kidnapped, told Agence France-Presse: “This is good news to us.

We have been waiting for this day. We hope the remaining girls will soon be released.” It was unclear whether his daughters had been freed.

A statement from a spokesman for President Buhari said he was deeply grateful to “security agencies, the military, the Government of Switzerland, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and local and international NGOs” for playing a role in the operation.

‘Two blindfolded men in convoy’- The BBC’s Stephanie Hegarty reports from Lagos
Information about the release began trickling out on Saturday afternoon.

A soldier contacted the BBC to say that more than 80 Chibok girls were being held in an army base near the Cameroon border.

At the same time an official working for an international agency, who assisted with the release, said that several armoured vehicles left Maiduguri – the city at the centre of the Boko Haram insurgency – in a convoy to travel into the “forest” to meet the girls.

He said there were two blindfolded men in the convoy.

The president’s office said that the girls were released in exchange for some Boko Haram suspects held by the authorities – but we haven’t been told how many.

After the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno state, was raided in April 2014, more than 50 girls quickly escaped and Boko Haram then freed another 21 last October, after negotiations with the Red Cross.

The campaign for the return of the girls drew the support of then US First Lady Michelle Obama and many Hollywood stars.

Last month, President Buhari said the government remained “in constant touch through negotiations, through local intelligence to secure the release of the remaining girls and other abducted persons unharmed”.

Many of the Chibok girls were Christian, but were encouraged to convert to Islam and to marry their kidnappers during their time in captivity.

Boko Haram has kidnapped thousands of other people during its eight-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in north-eastern Nigeria.

More than 30,000 others have been killed, the government says, and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee from their homes.

–

Source: BBC

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