Boko Haram releases 21 Chibok girls

Boko Haram has released 21 of the kidnapped Chibok girls, the president’s spokesman confirmed this morning. The release is the first positive result to come from negotiation efforts by the government since Boko Haram kidnapped the girls in 2014.

Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement the girls are now in the custody of the Department of State Services. Their release resulted from negotiations between the government and Boko Haram with the help of the International Red Cross and the Swiss government, Shehu said.

“The negotiations will continue,” the statement said.

Lawal Daura, director of the Department of State Services, said the department would eventually hand over the girls to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The Nigerian government for the first time published a record of its past negotiation efforts with the extremist group in September, saying the talks were ongoing. In a video released last month, Boko Haram’s controversial leader Abubakar Shekau said the group would only release the girls if the government swapped them for arrested militants.

“We are extremely excited and grateful,” the Bring Back Our Girls activist group posted on Twitter this morning.

The extremist group in 2014 kidnapped more than 270 girls from a boarding school in Chibok. More than 50 students managed to escape, but many remain with their captors. In May, an army-backed vigilante group found 19-year-old Amina Nkeki wandering in Sambisa forest, Boko Haram’s stronghold. Nkeki remains in government custody, and activists have demanded the government release her back to her family.