Rasaq AbdulKareem/
Nigerian government officials have confirmed the return of additional 21 out of 276 schoolgirls abducted by the Boko Haram sect at Chibok town, Borno State, on April 14, 2014.
Fifty-Seven of the Government Secondary School students had previously escaped, according to international human rights groups.
The circumstances under which they were released early today were unclear, as government officials insisted that no Boko Haram fighter was exchanged for the #Chibok girls.
The sect’s leaders had in a recent video demanded the release of their arrested members in exchange for the girls.
Confirming the return in a series of tweets, government spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, said the girls were kept in the custody of the Directorate of Social Services, soon after they were handed over to Nigerian soldiers in Borno State capital city, Maiduguri.
Shehu declined to name the freed girls.
He, however, tweeted that the head of Social Services who had briefed the government felt that the girls should rest “with all of them very tired coming out of the process before he hands them over to the Vice President”.
The militants had raided the girls’ hostel at midnight in 2014. They were suspected to have kept the captives at their stronghold in Sambisa Forest.
The Federal Government of Nigeria has acknowledged the role played by the Swiss Government and the International Committee of the Red Cross negotiators to secure the Chibok girls’ freedom.