Nigerian army finds another kidnapped Chibok schoolgirl

Nigerian soldiers on Thursday found another Chibok schoolgirl kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014, Nigeria’s military and president confirmed.

Gen. Sani Usman, the army’s spokesman, identified the girl as Rakiya Abubakar and said she had a 6-month-old baby. Usman said the soldiers found her while interrogating a group of detained Boko Haram suspects. Following a medical checkup, officials took her to the Borno state government where two other Chibok girls confirmed her identity.

”Hope springs eternal from the hearts of men,” Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima said. “We hope and pray that in the coming days and weeks, we will get back a substantial number of our daughters.”

In 2014 Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from a boarding school in the predominantly Christian town of Chibok. More than 50 girls managed to escape, but many remain with their captors. In May, an army-backed vigilante group found one of the girls wandering in the Sambisa Forest, Boko Haram’s stronghold. In October, Boko Haram released 21 of the girls following negotiations with the Nigerian government and the International Red Cross. The army found another girl the following month while screening people who had escaped from Sambisa.

Bring Back Our Girls Nigeria, which has campaigned for the girls’ release, said the latest rescue comes shortly before the group will mark 1,000 days since the girls’ kidnapping on Sunday. The group said 195 girls remain captive.

“We remain hopeful that these girls would be reunited with their families,” the group said.

The Nigerian army announced in December it cleared out Boko Haram’s last stronghold in Sambisa Forest in a raid, but it gave no word on the missing girls. Many believed the extremist group held the girls in Sambisa Forest.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement welcomed the rescue, and said, “The Nigerian government will do all within its powers to assist the military in locating the rest of the girls and eradicating the menace of terrorism in Nigeria.”