MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) – A second young woman abducted seven years ago from the town of Chibok by Boko Haram militants was freed this week, Borno state’s governor said on Saturday.
The kidnappings of some 270 teenagers in the northeastern town in 2014 sparked an international outcry and a viral campaign on social media with the hashtag #bringbackourgirls.
The army handed over Hassana Adamu, along with her two children, to Governor Babagana Zulum on Saturday, one week after his office announced that another of the victims had been freed and reunited with her parents.
Adamu, like the other of the recently freed “Chibok girl”, as the victims became known, “presented herself to the Nigerian army”, the governor’s office said.
Photos shared by his office showed a shell-shocked looking young woman, in a pink striped hijab, speaking to the governor with her two small children, flanked by military officers.
Eighty two of the victims were freed in 2017 after mediation, adding to 24 who were released or found. A few others have escaped or been rescued, but just over 110 remain missing.
Earlier this week, the army said that more than 1,000 Boko Haram members and their families had recently surrendered “due to the intense pressure from troops’ sustained offensive actions”.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau died in May following a battle with rival Islamist group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
ISWAP, the regional affiliate of Islamic State, has since sought to absorb Shekau’s fighters and unify the groups which during Shekau’s tenure fought one another for control of territory in northeast Nigeria and around Lake Chad.
(Reporting by Maiduguri newsroom; Writing by Libby George; Editing by Alison Williams)
