Ekeomah Atuonwu
Nigerian soldiers have discovered one of the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram operatives in the conflict-torn northeast eight years ago, according to the military.
The April 2014 attack on a girls’ boarding school in Chibok, Nigeria, and the subsequent mass kidnapping sparked international outrage and a global #BringBackOurGirlscampaign.
On Wednesday, the military announced on Twitter that troops on patrol had discovered Mary Ngoshe, a young woman carrying a baby near Ngoshe village.
“Troops of 26 Task Force Brigade on patrol around Ngoshe in Borno State on 14 June 2022 intercepted one Mrs Mary Ngoshe and her son,” the statement said.
“She is believed to be one of the abducted girls from GGSS (Government Girls Secondary School) Chibok in 2014,” it added, releasing a picture of a young woman and a child.
On April 14, 2014, the group abducted 276 students aged 12 to 17, and 57 of the girls managed to flee by jumping off the trucks they were herded on.
More than a hundred young women have yet to be found. According to propaganda videos released by Boko Haram’s late leader, Abubakar Shekau, some are believed to have been married off to fighters.
Several armed groups have carried out mass abductions and deadly attacks on schools in northern Nigeria since the Chibok school mass abduction.
Students have been kept out of schools as a result of the violence, and the United Nations estimates that more than 18.5 million Nigerian children do not have access to education.
