The Nigerian army has announced it has found two of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists in 2014, bringing the number of young girls found in recent years to 14. They were among 276 schoolgirls, aged 12 to 17, abducted from their boarding school in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria, in 2014. This affair had provoked a worldwide campaign called #BringBackOurGirls (“#RamenerNosFilles”).
Of the 276 students, 57 managed to escape, and 80 others were exchanged for Boko Haram officials in negotiations with the authorities. More girls were subsequently found, most with children of Boko Haram fighters, but 96 are still missing.
Forced Marriage
Nigerian officials introduced Hauwa Maltha and Esther Marcus to the press in Maiduguri, the region’s capital, on Thursday. The two young women were rescued on April 21. “I present to you the last two girls from Chibok who (…) were rescued during a military operation,” said General Ibrahim Ali. The two young girls were 12 years old at the time of the kidnapping. They were married to Boko Haram jihadists.
Hauwa Maltha became pregnant and was found with a three-year-old child. According to the official, she was married to three different jihadists. Esther Marcus has also been married to jihadists twice. “We weren’t married by choice,” Hauwa Maltha said. According to her, it was the historical leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, who married her to his men.
Abubakar Sekau died in May 2021 fighting with the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap). Since the “Chibok girls” kidnapping, many other schools or universities in northern Nigeria have come under attack in recent years, some by jihadists but mostly by criminal groups who practice mass kidnapping for ransom. The jihadist insurgency in the Northeast has lasted fourteen years and has left 40,000 dead and 2.2 million displaced.