The case of 219 Chibok schoolgirls missing for 2 years: First victim found

(Baonghean.vn) - The first victim of more than 200 schoolgirls who went missing two years ago after being kidnapped by Boko Haram in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria, has been found, according to information from local authorities and a group of parents on May 18.

#Bringbackourgirls protest on August 27, 2015 - the 500th day after the disappearance of more than 200 Chibok schoolgirls. Photo: Reuters.

Lawan Zannah, secretary of a group of parents of missing schoolgirls, said Amina Ali was found on May 17 near the Sambisa forest, close to the border with Cameroon.

“She was carrying a child but I don’t know if it was a boy or a girl,” Zannah told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Chibok.

Hoses Tsambido, chairman of the Chibok community in the capital Abuja, confirmed the incident but did not provide further information: “It is true that one of the Chibok girls has been found and rescued. Her name is Amina Ali Darsha, she was found yesterday in the Kulakasha area, on the edge of the Sambisa forest. She is currently with the military forces in Damboa.”

Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped a total of 276 schoolgirls in the attack on the Chibok school in April 2014. Some escaped early, but more than 200 remain unaccounted for. Three parents of the victims said they recognized their daughters in a video released in April.

The rebels have killed some 15,000 people and kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children in their six-year campaign to carve out a medieval-style Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria.

Zannah said she received news of Ali's rescue from Yakubu Nkeki, the chairperson of the parents' association, who had earlier received a call from a member of a security group in Chibok claiming to have found one of the missing girls.

Borno state governor Kashim Shettima confirmed to reporters that Ali was on her way back to the state capital Maiduguri.

In a related development, a statement from the activist group #Bringbackourgirls quoted the recently rescued victim Amina Ali Darsha as saying that all the other girls were still being held and heavily guarded in the Sambisa forest area.

The rescue will boost the credibility of President Muhammadu Buhari, who once ruled from the army and has made the defeat of the Boko Haram insurgent group a key pillar of his campaign to lead Africa's most populous nation.

Thao Linh

(According to Reuters)