Nigeria frees more women and girls from Boko Haram

Nigeria announced its military has freed 234 girls and women held captive by Boko Haram in the Sambisa Forest. This latest rescue brings the total number of released hostages this week to more than 677.

The military did not say whether any of the girls were taken from the village of Chibok a year ago. Boko Haram took nearly 300 girls from a Christian school in that kidnapping, which garnered international attention. The group has waged a brutal campaign of hostage-taking and violence since then, with unknown hundreds taken. Officials believe some of the women and children have been forced to act as suicide bombers.

The rescue effort comes as the army deployed ground troops following air raids on Sambisa Forest camps said to be the last holdout of the Islamic extremists. President Goodluck Jonathan, whose term ends this month, pledged Thursday to “hand over a Nigeria completely free of terrorist strongholds.”

The military says it is screening the girls and women to find out what villages they came from. Some women the soldiers tried to rescue shot at their rescuers, a military spokesman has said, indicating some might now identify with Boko Haram or be family members of fighters.

Muhammad Gavi, a spokesman for a self-defense group that fights Boko Haram, said some of the hundreds of women and girls who were freed are pregnant, citing information he got from some group members who have seen the females.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.