Nigerian troops rescued another Chibok girl abducted eight years ago by the terror group, Boko Haram.
According to a statement issued by the Military headquarters, Hauwa Joseph and a baby believed to be her child were intercepted during a clearance operation on June 14, 2022.
“Troops during clearance operations on 14 June 2022 intercepted another abducted girl from GGSS Chibok named Hauwa Joseph, who was kidnapped by Boko Haram on 14 April 2014. The intercepted Chibok girl & her baby are currently in a military medical facility,” the statement read.
It’s not immediately clear if Hauwa Joseph is one of the 276 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in 2014 from Chibok Secondary School in Borno State.
The Nigerian army said on Twitter on Tuesday that it had found a woman carrying a baby near a village in the northeastern state of Borno who it said could be one of the high school girls kidnapped in 2014.
“She is believed to be one of the girls abducted [from the school in] Chibok in 2014,” the army continued.
Of the 276 school girls abducted in 2014, 57 managed to escape and 80 were exchanged for Boko Haram commanders in negotiations with the authorities.
More girls have subsequently been found, but more than 100 remain missing. According to propaganda videos by Boko Haram’s long-time commander Abubakar Shekau, who died in 2021, many were forcibly married to jihadist fighters.
Since the abduction of the “Chibok girls”, many other schools or universities have been attacked in northern Nigeria in recent years, some by jihadists, but mostly by criminal groups who carry out mass kidnappings for ransom.
The violence has prevented many students from attending school, and the UN estimates that more than 18.5 million Nigerian children have no access to education.