Hotoro, Kano, Nigeria — The Nigerian Army says that they have rescued nearly 300 kidnapped women and girls who were being held hostage by Boko Haram terrorists in Northern Nigeria, but they also found tons of corpses in a dried riverbed. A military spokesman said the rescued girls and women are still being interviewed and treated, and they have not yet spoken to their families.
A different group of girls
However, these are not the same girls that were abducted in April 2014 from the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. That abduction led to an international social media movement to rescue them called #BringBackOurGirls. It was heavily supported around the world, and the hashtag is still widely used by many celebrities including First Lady Michelle Obama. Those girls, however, have yet to be found.
Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group, has been kidnapping females for years and reportedly has hundreds more in their custody. The name Boko Haram translates to “Western education is sin” in the local Hausa language. The group says they want to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is mostly Muslim in the north and mostly Christian in the south.
Rescue operations are dangerous
In addition to rescuing the women and girls that they did find, the Nigerian military also said they raided and destroyed three terrorists camps including the Tokumbere camp in the Sambisa Forest Operation. But not all of their rescue operations are successful. Just recently, they had to retreat from a rescue attempt because of explosive devices that were planted in the forest by Boko Haram soldiers.