57 of the schoolgirls escaped immediately following the incident by jumping from the trucks on which they were being transported, and others have been rescued by the Nigerian Armed Forces on various occasions.[4][5] Hopes have been raised that the 219 remaining girls might be released, however some girls are believed to be dead.[6] Amina Ali, one of the missing girls, was found in May 2016. She claimed that the remaining girls were still there, but that six had died.[7] As of 14 April 2021, seven years after the initial kidnapping, over 100 of the girls remain missing.[8][9][10]
Boko Haram began to target schools in 2010, killing hundreds of students by 2014. A spokesperson for the group said such attacks would continue as long as the Nigerian government continued to interfere with traditional Islamic education. 10,000 children have been unable to attend school as a result of activities by Boko Haram.[14] Boko Haram has also been known to kidnap girls, whom it believes should not be educated, and use them as cooks or sex slaves.[17]
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The school had been closed for four weeks before to the attack due to deteriorating security conditions, however students from multiple schools and villages were in attendance at the time of the raid to take final exams in Physics.[21][36] There were 530 students registered to participate in Senior Secondary Certificate Examination at the Government Girls Secondary School, although it is unclear how many were in attendance at the time of the attack.[37] The children were aged from 16 to 18 years of age and were in their final year of school.[38] There was initial confusion over the number of girls kidnapped, with the Nigerian military initially incorrectly claiming in a statement that the majority of the girls had escaped or been released and only eight were still unaccounted for.[39] Parents said that 234 girls were missing,[17] however according to the local police approximately 276 children were taken in the attack, of whom 53 had escaped by 2 May.[37] It is widely accepted that initially 276 girls were kidnapped.[39] Other reports gave various other figures for the number of kidnapped and missing students.[36][40][41]
On 2 May, the Nigerian police said that the exact number of students kidnapped was unclear and asked parents to forward the names and photos of kidnapped girls so an official count could be made. The police blamed damage to school records during the attack as a reason for the confusion.[37] Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan spoke publicly about the kidnapping for the first time on 4 May, saying the government was doing everything it could to find the missing girls.[38] At the same time, he criticized parents for not supplying enough information about their missing children, claiming that they were not fully cooperating with the police.[23]
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the kidnappings in a video released shorty after 1pm on 5 May.[52] Shekau claimed that "Allah instructed me to sell them... I will carry out his instructions",[38] and that "Slavery is allowed in my religion, and I shall capture people and make them slaves."[53] He said the girls should not have been in school and instead should have been married since girls as young as nine are suitable for marriage.[38][53] Another video was released a week later, which showed about 130 girls dressed in hijabs and long Islamic chadors. This was the first public sighting of the girls since they were abducted from Chibok.[54] In this video, Shekau acknowledged that many of the girls were not Muslims, but that some had converted to Islam[55][56] and that they would "treat them well the way the Prophet Muhammad treated the infidels he seized".[54] Shekau also mentioned that he would not release the girls until captured Boko Haram militants in prison were released, raising the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the Nigerian government.[54]
Following the Chibok kidnapping, several attacks linked to Boko Haram occurred in Nigeria. On 5 May, at least 300 residents of the nearby town of Gamboru Ngala were killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants after Nigerian security forces left the town to search for the kidnapped students.[57] The next day, Boko Haram militants abducted 8 girls aged between 12 and 15 from northeastern Nigeria.[58] In the night of 13 to 14 May, Boko Haram ambushed a military convoy that was searching for the abductees near Chibok, killing twelve soldiers and wounding several others. The incident led to mutiny of government forces at Maiduguri, reducing the ability of the Nigerian Army to rescue the schoolgirls.[59] Between 20 and 23 June, 91 women and children were abducted in other areas of Borno State by Boko Haram militants,[60] with an estimated 600 girls held by Boko Haram in three camps outside Nigeria by this stage.[61] Boko Haram once again attacked Chibok and other nearby villages on 22 July, killing at least 51 people, including 11 parents of the abducted girls.[62]
It was reported on 26 June that the Nigerian government had signed a contract worth more than $1.2 million with Levick, a Washington, D.C. public relations firm to work on "the international and local media narrative" surrounding the Chibok schoolgirl kidnapping.[69][70] The contract was labeled a waste of money by President Jonathan's critics.[71] Jonathan was criticized for a lack of communication regarding the kidnapping, but he later attributed his silence to a desire not to compromise the details of security efforts being carried out to rescue the girls via a column in The Washington Post.[70][72]
On 1 July, a businessman suspected of carrying out the kidnappings of the school girls, as well as the bombing of a busy market in northeastern Nigeria, was arrested. Military sources said that he was also accused of helping the Islamist militant group kill the traditional leader Idrissa Timta, the Emir of Gwoza.[73] Two weeks later, Zakaria Mohammed, a high-ranking member of Boko Haram, was arrested at Darazo-Basrika Road while fleeing from counterinsurgency operations around the Balmo Forest.[74][75]
Stephen Davis, a former Anglican clergyman, contacted three Boko Haram commanders who said they might be prepared to release Chibok schoolgirls and went to Nigeria in April 2015. He was given proof of life (a video of them being raped) and was told 18 were seriously ill, some with HIV. Davis got initial agreement that Boko Haram would release these ill girls. However, after three attempts the deal fell through when another group abducted the girls believing they could make money out of them and Davis left Nigeria.[51] Davis commented that it was not difficult to locate the five or six main Boko Haram camps, and that he was able to find them on Google Earth.[51]
Chibok schoolgirl Amina Ali Nkeki was found on 17 May by the vigilante Civilian Joint Task Force group in the Sambisa Forest, along with her baby and Mohammad Hayyatu, a suspected Boko Haram militant who claimed to be her husband.[84] All three were suffering from severe malnutrition when they were found.[85][86] She was then taken to house of the group's leader Aboku Gaji who recognised her. The group then reunited the girl with her parents.[86] She met Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on 19 May.[87] Government officials announced the same day that the Nigerian army and vigilante groups had killed 35 Boko Haram militants, freed 97 women and children and claimed one of the women was a Chibok schoolgirl.[88] However, there were doubts that this girl, Serah Luka, was really one of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.[89] On 21 May 2016, Amir Muhammad Abdullahi, who claimed to be the Boko Haram second in command and speaker for several senior militants, offered to surrender so long as they would not be harmed and in return they would release hostages including the Chibok girls. However when talking about the Chibok girls he said that "...frankly, just about a third of them remain, as the rest have been martyred".[90]
21 of the Chibok schoolgirls were released in October by Boko Haram after negotiations between the group and the Nigerian government, brokered by International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government.[95][96][97] A child born to one of the girls and believed by medical personnel to be about 20 months old also was released.[98] On 16 October, President Buhari's spokesperson stated that the ISIL-allied faction of Boko Haram was willing to negotiate the release of 83 more of the girls. According to him, the splinter group had stated that the rest of the girls were under the control of Shekau-led faction.[99] Two days later, Pogu Bitrus, the chairman of the Chibok Development Association, claimed that more than 100 of the missing girls apparently did not want to return home because they had either been brainwashed or were fearful of the stigma they will receive.[100] Another girl named Maryam Ali Maiyanga was found along with a baby and rescued by the Nigerian Army on 5 November. The spokesman for the army, Sani Usman, said that she was found in Pulka, Borno State whilst screening escapees from Boko Haram's Sambisa forest base.[101] She was confirmed to be one of those kidnapped at Chibok by Bring Back Our Girls.[102][103]
82 further schoolgirls were released on 6 May following successful negotiations between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram, involving the exchange of five Boko Haram leaders.[106][107][108] The negotiations were carried by Mustapha Zanna, barrister and owner of an orphanage in Maiduguri. The deal also involved the intervention of the human security division of Swiss government's foreign ministry[92] and the Red Cross.[108] 3 million Euros (about 3.7 million US$) were paid as ransom money in two duffel bags for the total of 103 girls released in October 2016 and May 2017.[109] A Nigerian government spokesman stated that though 83 girls were originally to be released in May 2017, one of them chose to stay with her husband instead of being freed.[110] 2ff7e9595c
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