Eight years after they were abducted from their school dormitory, three of the Chibok girls have been rescued by the Nigerian army

Eight years after they were abducted from their school dormitory, three of the Chibok girls have been rescued by the Nigerian army.

Two more Chibok school girls have been rescued, after over 8 years in captivity.

Now with children, the girls were forced into marriage with the Boko Haram fighters who captured them, local Nigerian media reported.

In a tweet, the Nigerian Army said troops of 202 battalion during clearance operations on July 25, 2022, intercepted four abducted women including two girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from GGSS Chibok on 14, 2014.

“The intercepted Chibok girls and their children are currently in a military medical facility,” the army tweeted.

There was global outrage when Islamists kidnapped nearly 300 girls in Nigeria’s north-eastern town of Chibok in 2014.

Most of the victims have either been freed or escaped since then, but dozens remain unaccounted for, international human rights organisations say.

On the discovery of the now women, one of the abductees was seen with a child, the other with two children.

Other victims of the mass abduction have described being forced to convert to Islam and marry the group’s fighters, BBC News Africa reported.

Other abductees have been offered accommodation and rehabilitation by the Nigerian government following their freedom from Boko Haram.

The two women were found on Monday during military operations against extremists in north-eastern Nigeria.

In total, 276 girls seized were from their school dormitory in the middle of the night on April 14, 2014. Within hours of their kidnapping, 57 managed to escape mostly by jumping off the lorries and running off into the bushes.

It was not until May 2016 that the first girl was found. A few others have also managed to escape over the years.

Between 2016 and 2018, 103 of the victims were freed following negotiations between the Nigerian government and the militants.

Campaign group Bring Back Our Girls says around 100 are still missing.

According to Xinhua, at least 20 extremist militants were killed in the past two weeks by troops undertaking anti-terror operations in Nigeria’s north-east region, the military said.

Bernard Onyeuko, a spokesman for the military, told reporters at a news briefing in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, that a total of 2 016 militants and their families surrendered to troops at various locations in the north-east region within the period.

This brings to 55 000 the number of Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) militants and their families who have so far surrendered to troops in Nigeria this year, the military official noted, citing a Xinhua report.