First group of rescued women brought to safety in Nigeria

The first group of nearly 300 Nigerian girls and women released from Boko Haram were brought by the military to the safety of a refugee camp in the country’s northeast Saturday evening.More than 677 females have been released this week, as the Nigerian military continues its campaign to push the Islamic extremists out their last remaining strongholds in the Sambisa Forest. The women had been traveling for three days from the forest where the military says it rescued them from captivity by the extremists.

The assault on the forest is continuing from various fronts and efforts are concentrated on rescuing hostages of civilians and destroying all terrorist camps and facilities in the forest.

Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade

Many of those arriving will be treated for malaria and malnutrition, said Dr. Mohammed Auwal. It is still not known if any of the females are the schoolgirls kidnapped from a boarding school in Chibok town a year ago — a mass kidnapping that outraged much of the world. The military said it has freed the women and children as part of the campaign to clear Boko Haram from Sambisa Forest. In recent weeks the military and troops from neighboring countries have taken back control of towns in northeastern Nigeria that had been held by Boko Haram and where the extremists had declared an Islamic caliphate.

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