Chibok - The African Mirror

Feb

2021

‘I was crying’: Kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirl phones home after seven years

ADAOBI TRICIA NWAUBANI NEARLY seven years since Islamist militants kidnapped two of his daughters from their school in northeastern Nigeria, a hurried phone call let Ali Maiyanga know that his family's ordeal might soon be over. The call on Thursday evening was from Maiyanga's daughter Halima, who - along with her sister Maryam - was among more than 200 schoolgirls snatched by Boko Haram insurgents in Chibok in April 2014, sparking a global #BringBackOurGirls campaign. "I was crying, she was crying," said Maiyanga, who was preparing to get married to his fourth wife when he heard Halima's voice down the…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Freed Nigerian schoolboys return home, tell of beatings and hunger

NEWS

AFOLABI SOTUNDE SCORES of schoolboys who were rescued from kidnappers in northwest Nigeria have arrived back home, many of them barefoot and wrapped in blankets after their week-long ordeal. The boys, dressed in dusty clothes, looked dazed and weary but otherwise well as they got off buses in the city of Katsina. Within hours - before many had met their waiting parents - they were whisked to a reception with President Muhammadu Buhari, who had come under mounting pressure to free them and deal with insecurity in the north. One boy, who did not give his name, said the captors…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

More than 340 kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys freed – state governor

NEWS

LIBBY GEORGE and ALEXIS AKWAGYRIRAM MORE than 300 schoolboys who had been kidnapped in northern Nigeria were handed over to government security agents yesterday, the governor of Katsina state said. Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State. Picture: Esther Addy/Flickr Governor Aminu Bello Masari said in a televised interview with state channel NTA that a total of 344 boys held in a forest in neighbouring Zamfara state had been freed. "We have recovered most of the boys. It's not all of them," he said. The boys, whose abduction was claimed by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in an unverified audio…