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It’s Official! Presidency confirms release of 21 Chibok girls

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The release of 21 out out 218 Chibok girls in the captivity of of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, has been confirmed by the Presidency.
Their release was confirmed on Thursday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement.
According to Shehu, the released giirls are in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS.
Shehu also disclosed that the Director-General of the DSS, Lawal Daura, briefed President Muhammadu Buhari of the development  before he left for Germany.
The release of the girls, according to the statement was due to the negotiations between the government and the Boko Haram sect brokered by the International Red Cross and the Swiss government.
The statement reads in part:  “The release of the girls, in a limited number is the outcome of negotiations between the administration and the the Boko Haram brokered by the International Red Cross and the Swiss government. The negotiations will continue.
“The President welcomes the release of the girls but cautioned Nigerians to be mindful of the fact that more than 30,000 fellow citizens were killed via terrorism.
“Lawal wants the girls to have some rest, with all of them very tired coming out of the process before he hands them over to the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.
“The President takes off shortly on a trip to Germany for a state visit. The names of the released girls follows shortly”, the statement said.

Timeline of a horrifying abduction (Credit: ENCA)

April 14, 2014:

The Government Girls Secondary School in the village of Chibok reopened for exams.  Armed men in Nigerian military uniform stormed into the school at night, telling the girls they would take them to safety.  The students soon realized the men were not real soldiers; they were actually from Boko Haram, a terrorist group based in northeastern of Nigeria whose name figuratively means “Western education is a sin”.

April 16, 2014:

The government of Borno State announced a reward of $300,000 for information leading to the rescue of the school girls. Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan calls a National Security Council meeting in Abuja to review security measures to determine the best way forward. The Nigerian military issued a statement that almost all of the girls had been freed. The next day, the military retracted their claim.

April 24, 2014:

Parents of the missing girls and other Nigerians take to social media to call the attention of the international community to their plight and to put pressure on the Nigerian government to take action. Ibrahim M. Abdullahi, a lawyer in Abuja, sends the first tweet using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

April 30, 2014:

The “Million-Woman March, held in Abuja, gathers about 500 people who were mostly women dressed in red. They marched to the National Assembly and delivered a letter,  complaining that the government was not doing enough to ensure the release of the girls.

May 2, 2014:

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan announces a “fact-finding committee” to help in the search of the girls. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that Washington “will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and hold the perpetrators to justice. That is our responsibility and the world’s responsibility.”

May 5, 2014:

In a video statement, Boko Haram leader acknowledges that his group was responsible for the kidnapping of the schoolgirls. He declares the students “will remain slaves with us”. The White House confirms that the United States is helping Nigeria in the quest to find and free the abducted schoolgirls.  There is some speculation that the girls may have been moved into nearby countries.

May 7, 2014:

Boko Haram attacks the Nigerian village of Gamboru Ngala on the border with Cameroon. Over 300 people are killed in the attack. In Paris, French president François Hollande offers Nigeria a “special team” to look for the girls and Britain says it will send a team of experts to Nigeria to help with the crisis. China’s Premier Li Keqiang, on a visit to Abuja, promises that his country will make any useful information acquired by its satellites and intelligence services available to Nigeria’s security agencies.

May 12, 2014:

In a new Boko Haram video, the leader of the group Abubakar Shekau claims to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls. The girls say they have converted to Islam and the terrorist group declares they will release the schoolgirls in exchange for all imprisoned militants.

May 17, 2014:

United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, then President Goodluck Jonathan and French President, François Hollande are among attendees of a summit in Paris on the growing threat of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. William Hague offered Nigeria assistance in the form of military advisors, but has insisted that the country must take its security responsibility seriously in the face of ongoing attacks from Boko Haram.

May 21, 2014:

Nigeria’s then Ambassador to the U.S., the late Professor Ade Adefuye responded to the remarks made by Senator McCain at a meeting in Washington DC. He said the Nigerian government was doing everything possible to secure the safe release of the Girls and assured that #our girls will be back.

May 27, 2014:

The military says it knows where the girls abducted by Boko Haram are, but ruled out using force to rescue them.  Nigeria’s president was sent a new video of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in which they plead with him to spare their lives through a prisoner swap. The Nigerian government has denied that any deal was on the table, and has so far neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the video.

July 12, 2014:

Pakistani human rights activist Malala Yousafzai visits Abuja and meets, first with five of the girls who escaped (July 13), and then with the President (July 14).

July 15, 2014:

Jonathan’s planned meeting fails to hold as the parents reportedly cancel it the very last moment. Goodluck Jonathan blames #BringBackOurGirls campaigners for whisking away the parents who were to visit him at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

July 16, 2014:

Parents explain that they did not shun the meeting with President intentionally, but were unaware of it saying they received the invitation already on the day of the visit scheduled by Jonathan.

July 17, 2014:

Presidency sends another letter to the girls’ parents and the event gets rescheduled to the next week.

July 22, 2014:

Jonathan meets with the parents of the Chibok girls at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

On October 31:

Shekau quashes rumours of a deal with Nigerian authorities and says the girls have converted to Islam and been “married off”.

On April 14, 2015:

Nigeria’s president-elect Muhammadu Buhari warns he “cannot promise that we can find” the girls, as vigils are held in many countries to mark their first year as hostages.
Amnesty International believes the girls have been separated into three or four groups and are being held in camps, some of which might be in Cameroon or Chad.
Buhari says in late December he is willing to negotiate with any “credible” Boko Haram leadership, a week after claiming the country has “technically” won the war against Boko Haram.
Others freed
Throughout 2015, the Nigerian military announces the rescue of hundreds of people, most of them women and children, who have been kidnapped by Boko Haram.
But the missing schoolgirls are not among them, despite several unconfirmed sightings.
Suicide attacks using women and young girls increase against “soft” civilian targets such as mosques, markets and bus stations, fuelling fears about Boko Haram’s use of its captives.

In March 2016:

It emerges that Boko Haram also seized 500 women and children from the Borno town of Damasak just months after the Chibok abduction. The kidnapping had been denied at the time.
‘Proof of life
On April 13, 2016, US television station CNN reports that Boko Haram has sent a “proof of life” video which shows 15 of the girls, the first concrete indication that at least some are still alive.
By Timothy Enietan-Matthews

 

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