ICYMI, 21 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in April 2014 were released by the Islamic militant group last Thursday.
They were flown to the Nigerian capital of Abuja for medical attention and trauma counselling, before being reunited with their families in an emotional scene on Sunday night.
The girls were among the 300 female students taken from a secondary school in the remote Nigerian town of Chibok, from which their families travelled over 800km through dangerous roads to meet them.
There’s conflicting reports as to why they were released, but a spokesperson Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari told Reuters that the girls were intended as a show of goodwill.
“These 21 released girls are supposed to be tale bearers to tell the Nigerian government that this faction of Boko Haram has 83 more Chibok girls,” said spokesperson Garba Shehu. “The faction said it is ready to negotiate if the government is willing sit down with them.”
However, there are also rumours that they were traded for four detained Boko Haram commanders, or that the Swiss government (which worked with the Red Cross to broker the exchange) paid the militant group a hefty ransom sum somewhere in the millions. Both reports have been denied.
Boko Haram claims they still have 83 of the 300 schoolgirls ready to trade. Dozens of the girls escaped in the first few hours of being kidnapped, but others have reportedly been married off and radicalised. “The truth is that those Chibok girls are now Boko Haram members,” a source told local media.
