ABUJA — A group of girls released by Boko Haram militants after kidnapping them in 2014 in the north Nigerian town of Chibok arrived on Sunday in the capital Abuja.
The girls arrived at Abuja airport and were driven away in a military convoy.
Nigeria said on Saturday it had secured the release of 82 girls in exchange for Boko Haram prisoners.
Around 270 girls were kidnapped in April 2014 by the militant group, which has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year insurgency in northeastern Nigeria.
Dozens escaped in the initial melee, but more than 200 remained missing for more than two years.
Nigeria thanked Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross for helping secure the release of the 82 girls after “lengthy negotiations”, the presidency said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s president said he will meet on Sunday with 82 Chibok schoolgirls freed this week.
A first group of 21 girls were released in October as Nigeria announced it had begun negotiations with the extremist group.
Before Saturday’s release, 195 of the girls had been captive. Now 113 of the girls remain unaccounted for.
The ICRC, which along with the Swiss government has mediated months of negotiations between Nigeria’s government and Boko Haram, tweeted what might be the first public image of the freed schoolgirls on Sunday. The photo showed a line of young women wearing shirts with the ICRC logo waiting to board a helicopter.
The ICRC said it had acted as a neutral intermediary to transport the freed girls into Nigerian government custody.
Long-suffering family members said they were eagerly awaiting a list of names and their “hopes and expectations are high.”
The April 2014 abduction by Boko Haram brought the extremist group’s rampage in northern Nigeria to world attention and began years of heartbreak for the families of the missing schoolgirls.
Some relatives did not live to see their daughters released.
Many of the captive girls, most of them Christians, were forced to marry their captors and give birth to children in remote forest hideouts without knowing if they would see their parents again. It is feared that other girls were strapped with explosives and sent on missions as suicide bombers.
A Nigerian military official with direct knowledge of the rescue operation said the freed girls were found near the town of Banki in Borno state near Cameroon.
Boko Haram remains active in that area. On Friday, the United States and Britain issued warnings that the extremist group was actively planning to kidnap foreigners in an area of Borno state “along the Kumshe-Banki axis.”
The 276 schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok in 2014 are among thousands of people abducted by Boko Haram over the years. — AP
