Welcome to Africanews

Please select your experience

Watch Live

News

news

Rescued Chibok girl in Borno governor's care, meets Buhari

Nigeria

The rescued Chibok girl, Amina Ali Nkeki and her 4-month-old baby have been handed over to the Borno state governor after undergoing medical checks at a hospital in the northeastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri.

The Nigerian military on Thursday, released photos of the former Boko Haram captive being examined by soldiers and doctors.

RESCUED CHIBOK GIRL HANDED OVER TO BORNO STATE GOVERNORhttps://t.co/FwzeGaOuU4skusman NTANewsNow channelstv pic.twitter.com/yDmODyJOca

— Nigerian Army (HQNigerianArmy) May 19, 2016

She was rescued from the Sambisa forest, a hideout for the Islamist militant group, on Wednesday by a group of Nigerian soldiers and a civilian vigilante group.

The 19-year-old is the first of the over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram 2 years ago, to have been found.

A suspected Boko Haram militant, Mohammed Hayatu who was with Nkeki and claimed to be her husband was also arrested, the military said.

The Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima received Nkeki from the military on Thursday and flew to Abuja for another meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the BBC, Nkeki is one of two surviving children of her mother, a widow, who lost all her 13 children but Nkeki and her brother.

On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from the Chibok Government Girls secondary school as they prepared to write their exams.

Dozens of the girls managed to escape in the initial melee but some 219 of them remained unaccounted for.

The rescue of the first of the over 200 missing schoolgirls is expected to boost the morale of the Nigerian military who have been tasked to find the missing schoolgirls.

Nkeki is expected to shed some light on the whereabout of her colleagues in her meeting with President Buhari in Abuja today.

Reuters

View more