Woman rescued after living 10 years in Boko Haram captivity

The Nigerian Army claims to have rescued one of Chibok's missing schoolgirls, who was abducted by Boko Haram a decade ago.

Lydia Simon was rescued with her three children by troops conducting an operation in northern Borno state, the military said on Thursday (18). She was five months pregnant at the time of rescue.

The Army did not specify how or when the rescue took place, only highlighting that it was “recent”. A CNN contacted the Armed Forces for more details.

Of the 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014, more than 100 were released. The fate of more than 80 girls remains unknown, according to data from Amnesty International.

The 2014 mass abduction sparked a global social media campaign, #BringBackOurGirls, calling for their release, as well as government action to protect young women's education.

Boko Haram, whose objective is to establish Sharia, that is, Islamic law, has waged an insurgency battle that has lasted more than 15 years in northern Nigeria and led to the kidnapping of thousands of people.

Still, the abduction of the Chibok girls remains the most notorious example of the group's attack on schools.

The latest rescue of a Chibok schoolgirl was announced a day after the Nigerian Army said it had “successfully raided a Boko Haram/Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) stronghold in Borno state following airstrikes and fighting land in the vast Sambisa forest”, which has served as an enclave for extremist groups for years.

A decade later: survivors tell their stories

Survivors of the Chibok kidnapping recently shared their harrowing stories from captivity with the CNN on the 10th anniversary of the case.

One of them, 27-year-old Amina Ali, was forced to marry a Boko Haram fighter, spending two years in captivity before escaping.

She is studying and working towards a better future for herself and her 8-year-old daughter, which she told CNN having been stigmatized and labeled as “daughter of Boko Haram”.

Another survivor, 26-year-old Hannatu Stephen, was released in 2017 and lost a leg during an airstrike by the Nigerian military on a Boko Haram hideout. Six of her friends were killed in the attack, according to her.

Hauwa Ishaya, 27, who was 16 when she was abducted, reported that she was beaten by her captors and pressured into accepting a Boko Haram husband, from which she said she managed to escape.

Ishaya was also reunited with her family in 2017 after spending three years as a “slave” treating injured Boko Haram fighters.

Persistent kidnappings

Kidnappings and school attacks have persisted across northern Nigeria since 2014, with more than 1,600 students kidnapped and nearly 200 others killed, according to a Save the Children report.

Criminal gangs are also exploiting the vulnerability exposed by extremist groups, leading to an increase in ransom kidnappings, the report concluded.

On March 7, more than 100 students, most of them girls, were allegedly taken by criminal gangs from a school in Kuriga, in northwestern Nigeria. Two days later, 15 more children were abducted from a boarding school in Sokoto state, also in the northwest, according to Human Rights Watch.