Nigerian army rescues abducted chibok girl in Borno

The Nigerian army has found a woman suspected of being one of the 270 Chibok high school girls abducted eight years ago by the jihadist group Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria.

In 2014, Boko Haram's abduction of 276 school girls aged 12 to 17 from a boarding school in Chibok sparked a global campaign for their release called #BringBackOurGirls. Eight years later, more than 100 girls are still missing.

The Nigerian army said on Twitter on Tuesday that it had found a woman carrying a baby near a village in the northeastern state of Borno who it said could be one of the high school girls kidnapped in 2014.

Soldiers "on patrol near Ngoshe intercepted a Mrs Mary Ngoshe and her son," the army tweet said, accompanied by a photo of a young woman holding a baby.

"She is believed to be one of the girls abducted [from the school in] Chibok in 2014," the army continued.

Of the 276 school girls abducted in 2014, 57 managed to escape and 80 were exchanged for Boko Haram commanders in negotiations with the authorities.

More girls have subsequently been found, but more than 100 remain missing. According to propaganda videos by Boko Haram's long-time commander Abubakar Shekau, who died in 2021, many were forcibly married to jihadist fighters.

Since the abduction of the "Chibok girls", many other schools or universities have been attacked in northern Nigeria in recent years, some by jihadists, but mostly by criminal groups who carry out mass kidnappings for ransom.

The violence has prevented many students from attending school, and the UN estimates that more than 18.5 million Nigerian children have no access to education.