Twenty-one of more than 200 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from a school in Chibok in 2014 have been released after negotiations brokered by the Red Cross and Switzerland.
“It is confirmed that 21 of the missing Chibok Girls have been released and are in the custody of the Department of State Services,” presidential spokesman Mallam Garba Shehu tweeted yesterday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed in Geneva that it had “acted as an intermediary”, without negotiating “as such” with the radical Islamist group.
“Today we transferred 21 of the Chibok girls and handed them to the Nigeria government authorities, acting as a neutral intermediary,” an ICRC spokeswoman said.
The Swiss foreign ministry said that Switzerland had “facilitated contacts between representatives of the Nigerian government and intermediaries of Boko Haram”.
Nigerian Information Minister Lai Mohammed denied reports that the girls had been swapped with four high-profile Boko Haram militants.
“This is not a swap, this is a release,” he said, without commenting on whether a ransom had been paid.
The girls were due to “have some rest, with all of them very tired coming out of the process”, Garba Shehu said.
They were picked up by a military helicopter in the Banki area of northeastern Borno state, the news website Sahara Reporters quoted a source as saying.
Minister Mohammed said that they were flown to the city of Kaduna before being taken to the capital Abuja, where they would be received by doctors, psychologists and social workers.
Sahara Reporters said that 18 of the girls were nursing mothers.
“As I depart Abuja for Germany on an official visit, I welcome the release of 21 of our Chibok Girls, following successful negotiations,” Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari tweeted.
The pressure group Bring Back Our Girls welcomed the “wonderful development”.
“Following this development, we trust that our government will continue to work to keep the safety, security, and well-being of the other girls a high priority,” said the group, which campaigns for their release.
Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls and young women on April 14, 2014, from their school dormitory in the northeastern village of Chibok.
Only about 50 of the abductees managed to escape immediately.
Despite various attempts to search for the missing girls and to negotiate with Boko Haram, the military only managed to rescue one of the girls, in May.
The government came under criticism for its incapacity to rescue the girls who were being held as sex slaves or in forced marriages to Boko Haram fighters.
In August, the militant group released a video showing dozens of women who the group claimed were the abducted pupils.
Boko Haram’s campaign to create an Islamic fundamentalist state has claimed at least 14,000 lives since 2009.