Some of the newly-released Dapchi schoolgirls are pictured in Jumbam village, Yobe State, Nigeria March 21, 2018. REUTERS/REUTERS/Ola Lanre
Negotiations through a back-channel led to the release of 91 Dapchi girls and a boy, the Nigerian government said Wednesday.
The girls were among the 110 snatched by suspected Boko Haram insurgents from their School on February 19. They were released around 3: 00 am on Wednesday, Nigeria’s minister of information Lai Mohammed said.
“The girls were released around 3:00 am through back-channel efforts and with the help of some friends of the country,” said Mohammed, without elaborating.
Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed speaking to the press minutes ago, on the release of the Dapchi girls #DapchiGirlsAreBack pic.twitter.com/jqcUGsZ5jd
— Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) March 21, 2018
Mohammed told journalists that the number of the girls so far documented after their release has increased from 76 to 91. A boy was among the freed persons, he said.
“Now I can confirm that 91 girls and one boy have been released,” he said.
Read More: Dapchi girls freed by abductors
“Many of the children that were released were not dropped in one place. Some were dropped on the road, and naturally, they went back to their parents’ houses. They are now being asked to come and be documented at a centre.”
The International Committee of Red Cross has acted as an intermediary between the government and the Boko Haram on, at least, two occasions when a faction of the terror group released some of the girls kidnapped from the school on April 14, 2014, in Chibok, Borno State.
The number of freed girls may increase “because the girls were not handed over to anyone but dropped off in Dapchi,” the minister said.
No ransom paid for 91 Dapchi girls released, Presidency says
