63 or More Girls Escape Clutches of Boko Haram

But these are not actually the girls that made all the news, the 200+ girls kidnapped from their school on April 14.

These girls and women were kidnapped in raids on small villages on June 14. When their captors' attention was diverted by fighting with police and soldiers, they fled.

The female hostages escaped Friday while their captors left their camp to launch an attack against the military and police in the nearby town of Damboa, said Bukar Kyari, a local vigilante fighting Boko Haram in Maiduguri.

Soldiers overwhelmed the insurgents, forcing them to mobilize all their men and leave the abducted women in the camp, Kyari said.

"The women seized that rare opportunity to escape when they realized they were alone in the camp," Kyari said. "But we still have five women, including a nursing mother, missing."

Five from the group of kidnapped girls are still missing.

This article from Le Figaro adds the claim that the Nigerian government covered-up these June 16 abductions.

According to the Nigerian daily Punch, there had been a conspiracy of the State for hiding this recent kidnapping. According to the newspaper, the government wanted to avoid re-igniting the international furor over the kidnappings...

According to a New York Times article, these girls are being sold for twelve dollars to become the "wife" -- rape victim -- of these "militants."

posted by Ace at 03:19 PM

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