The girls are the first to be freed since the group was kidnapped from a boarding school in 2014.
Boko Haram has released 21 of the girls kidnapped in Chibok in April 2014 to the Nigerian Army in Maidugiri, capital of Borno state (where the Islamist group has been strongest), according to the Nigerian president’s spokesman.
It has been confirmed that the girls were freed in a trade for four imprisoned Boko Haram fighters, the BBC reported. The Swiss government acted as intermediaries.
Joel Billi, pastor and president of the Ekeklesiya Yan’uwa Nigeria Church, told World Watch Monitor that 201 of the kidnapped girls belong to his church.
“I would have celebrated even if one person was freed. I am very, very happy to hear that 21 of them are free,” he said. “My heart is also rejoicing that one day soon … the majority of them, if not all of them, are going to be freed.”
It’s been two and a half years since 275 schoolgirls were kidnapped from their dormitories in Chibok, in the northeastern state of Borno. Their disappearance generated headlines around the world and fueled a social media storm with the hashtag #bringbackourgirls.
Today is the first time any of the schoolgirls have been released, though one of them escaped with her baby and Boko Haram “husband” in May. Amina Nkeki was found in the Sambisa Forest, close to the border with Cameroon. (Two days later, Nigeria’s army said it had rescued a second girl, Serah Luka, believed to be the daughter of a pastor. She was later found to not have been among the Chibok girls.)
In September, the Nigerian government for the first time disclosed the details of its failure to secure the release of the girls during negotiations which began in July 2015, shortly after president Muhammadu Buhari took office.
Three times the …
