Nigeria’s military rescued 234 more girls and women from a Boko Haram forest stronghold in the country’s northeast, the military announced Saturday.
More than 677 females have been released this week, as the Nigerian military continues its campaign to push the Islamic extremists out their last remaining strongholds in the Sambisa Forest.
“FLASH: Another set of 234 women and children were rescued through the Kawuri and Konduga end of the .Sambisa Forest on Thursday,” said the Nigerian Defence Headquarters early Saturday on its official Twitter account.
The army has deployed ground troops into the forest after weeks of punishing air raids on the area.
“The assault on the forest is continuing from various fronts and efforts are concentrated on rescuing hostages of civilians and destroying all terrorist camps and facilities in the forest,” said Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade.
In recent weeks the military and troops from neighbouring countries have taken back control of towns in northeastern Nigeria that had been held by Boko Haram and where the extremists had declared an Islamic caliphate.
Sambisa Forest is reported to be the Islamic militants’ last holdout. President Goodluck Jonathan, whose term ends this month, pledged Thursday to “hand over a Nigeria completely free of terrorist strongholds.”
It is not known how many girls, women, boys and men Boko Haram has kidnapped during its nearly 6-year-old rebellion. Nigeria’s army has reported rescuing only females.
Some women shot at their rescuers and were killed, as Boko Haram used them as an armed human shield for its main fighting force.
Soldiers were shocked when women opened fire on troops who had come to rescue them in the village of Nbita last week, The Associated Press was told by a military intelligence officer and a soldier who were at the scene. The women killed seven soldiers and soldiers fighting back killed 12 of the women and wounded several others, they said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Most of the females who have been released are traumatized, said army spokesman Col. Sani Usman. Nigeria’s military says it has flown in medical and intelligence teams to screen the rescued girls and women and find out their identities.
It is still not known if any are the schoolgirls kidnapped from a boarding school in Chibok town a year ago — a mass kidnapping that outraged much of the world.
Some identify with the insurgents’ extremist ideology after months of captivity and forced marriages, a counsellor who has helped rehabilitate other women held captive by Boko Haram told the AP. It remains unclear if some of the women had willingly joined Boko Haram, or are family members of fighters.
Some of the freed women and girls are pregnant, Muhammad Gavi, a spokesman for a self-defence group that fights Boko Haram, said citing information from group members who have seen the females.
