Captured suicide bomber: I was kidnapped from Chibok

A female Nigerian suicide bomber who surrendered to Cameroonian authorities claims she is one of the 276 girls abducted from a boarding school in Chibok by Islamic militants nearly two years ago, authorities revealed on Saturday. The Nigerian government is working with Cameroon to verify the claim. If true, it would be the first news related to the kidnapped girls in many months.

The girl, estimated to be about 15 years old, was one of two girls with explosives arrested by local authorities in northern Cameroon on Friday.

“The girl looked tired, malnourished, and psychologically tortured and could not give us more details about her stay in the forest and how her other mates were treated,” said Idrissou Yacoubou, leader of a self-defense group in Limani, Cameroon.

A Chibok community leader said the girl’s age makes her a possible match for one of the youngest girls kidnapped from Chibok by Boko Haram fighters in the early hours of April 15, 2014. Dozens of girls escaped, but 219 remain missing. The mass kidnapping launched the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign that garnered global attention.

Two parents from Chibok, a mostly Christian village, are traveling to Cameroon to verify the girl’s identity and continue the search for the remaining girls.

“If it is true, we are very happy about it,” Yana Galang, one of the two parents going to Cameroon told Reuters. “If we see her with our eyes, we will know where our girls are.”

Since the kidnapping, authorities have had no success locating the missing girls. They were last seen in a video with Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, who boasted they had converted from Christianity to Islam and would be married off to his fighters. But officials also feared the girls could be among the suicide bombers the extremist group has increasingly used in recent attacks.

Martin Ewi, a Boko Haram expert with the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa, said the girl could help verify many of these claims if she is confirmed to be from Chibok.

“There’ve been allegations, but none of them have really been proven,” Ewi said. “It could provide an important avenue to really get to know where the girls have been.”

In recent months, Nigeria’s military and forces from neighboring countries have reported freeing at least 3,000 captives from several insurgent camps in the region. On Thursday, Nigeria’s army announced it rescued more than 800 hostages from camps in Nigeria’s Borno state.

“It means Boko Haram itself is running short of recruits and captives,” Ewi said. “These are important developments which will help us make an analysis in terms of where we are with Boko Haram.”

The terror group, which pledges allegiance to Islamic State, has lost most of its territory in recent battles but continues guerrilla attacks across the region.

Editor’s note: See our March 31 article “Captured suicide bomber not one of the Chibok schoolgirls” for an update.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.