Second Chibok girl, 97 other Boko Haram captives rescued

A spokesman of the Nigerian army, Colonel Sani Usman has announced that a second Chibok girl has been rescued two years after more than 200 schoolgirls were seized by Boko Haram.

Nigerian media reports that her name is Sarah Luka who says she was in form 1 at the time of abduction. She is number 157 on the list of abducted girls and believed to be the daughter of one Pastor Luka.

“During the operations, the troops killed 35 Boko Haram terrorists and recovered several arms and ammunitions and other items. In addition, they rescued 97 women and children held captives by the Boko Haram terrorists,” Colonel Usman said in a statement.

The first of the abducted girls, Amina Ali was found on Tuesday by troops and civilian vigilantes near Boko Haram’s stronghold close to the Sambisa Forest area of Borno state, northeast of Nigeria.

Abducted aged 17, the now 19-year-old and her mother met president Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja earlier on Thursday.

#BREAKING #Nigeria army reports rescue of another #ChibokGirl. Hours after #AminaAli met with Prez Buhari in Abuja pic.twitter.com/sELpPk692F

— africanews (@africanews) May 19, 2016

Boko Haram militants had captured a total of 276 girls in a raid on their school in Chibok in April 2014.

Dozens of them had escaped but more than 200 remained unaccounted for.

Nigeria’s military has been mounting an offensive in the sprawling, semi-desert scrubland of Sambisa since late April to flush out Boko Haram fighters.

Boko Haram is thought to have kidnapped thousands of women and young girls since the start of its insurgency to create a hardline jihadist state.

The insurgents have killed and kidnapped thousands of people and have left several thousand others homeless and lodging in Internally Displaced Peoples camps across the country.