MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Hundreds of hostages, mostly children and women, held captive for months or years by Boko Haram extremists in northeastern Nigeria have been rescued from a forest enclave and handed over to authorities, the military said.
The 350 hostages were being held in the Sambisa Forest, a hideout for the extremist group that launched an insurgency in 2009, Major General Ken Chigbu, a senior Nigerian army officer, said late on Monday as he presented them to authorities in Borno. forest is.
The 209 children, 135 women and six men appeared exhausted in their worn clothing. Some girls had babies believed to have been born from forced marriages, as is often the case with female victims who are raped or forced to marry the militants while in captivity.
One of the hostages had seven children and said she and others could not escape because of their children.
“I always wanted to escape, but I couldn’t because of the children,” said Hajara Umara, who was rescued with her children. “If they caught you trying to escape, they would torture you and imprison you indefinitely.”
The military said the hostages were rescued during a days-long military operation in the Sambisa Forest, once a vibrant forest reserve stretching along the border with Cameroon and Niger but now serving as an enclave from which Boko Haram and its breakaway factions attack to carry out. which also target people and security forces in neighboring countries.
The released hostages were transported in trucks to the Borno State Government House, where authorities will care for them until they go home.
Some extremists were killed during the rescue operation and their makeshift homes were destroyed, the army said.
Boko Haram, Nigeria’s jihadist rebels, launched its insurgency in 2009 to introduce Islamic Sharia law in the country. At least 35,000 people have been killed and 2.1 million displaced as a result of the extremist violence, according to UN agencies in Nigeria.
At least 1,400 students have been removed from Nigerian schools since the 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants in Chibok village in Borno state shocked the world. In recent years, kidnappings have concentrated in the conflict-affected northwestern and central regions of the country, where dozens of armed groups often target villagers and travelers for ransom.
