Nigerian troops find kidnapped Chibok schoolgirl with a baby

Nigerian troops find kidnapped Chibok schoolgirl with a baby eight years after she and more than 200 others were abducted by Boko Haram jihadists

• Soldiers found one of over 200 boarding schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram
• Girls were abducted by jihadists from Chibok in 2014 and half are now free 
• Yesterday Mary Ngoshe, now a young woman, was seen carrying a baby boy

One of the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram jihadists eight years ago in Nigeria has ben found carrying a baby by military forces. 

Mary Ngoshe, now a married young woman, and her son were seen yesterday near Ngoshe village, 179km from where she was kidnapped by Islamic extremists in Chibok in 2014. 

The attack on a girls’ boarding school and the mass kidnapping that followed sparked international outrage and a global campaign called #BringBackOurGirls. 

Of the 276 pupils aged 12 to 17 who were abducted by the militants on April 14, 2014, 57 of the girls managed to escape by jumping off trucks they had been herded on.

An additional 21 were released after negotiations brokered by the Red Cross and the Swiss Government in October 2016 and another 82 were freed in exchange for some Boko Haram suspects in May 2017 while others have turned themselves in to the police and army. 

Some of the over a hundred girls that remain missing were married off to jihadists according to propaganda videos released by Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s late leader. 

Mary Ngoshe (pictured), now a young woman, and her son were seen yesterday near Ngoshe village, 179km from where she was kidnapped by Islamic extremists in Chibok in 2014

Of the 276 pupils aged 12 to 17 who were abducted by the militants on April 14, 2014, 57 of the girls managed to escape by jumping off trucks they had been herded on. The girls are pictured in a propaganda a Boko Haram video

The Nigerian military said on Twitter: ‘Troops of 26 Task Force Brigade on patrol around Ngoshe in Borno State on 14 June 2022 intercepted one Mrs Mary Ngoshe and her son,’ the statement said.

‘She is believed to be one of the abducted girls from GGSS (Government Girls Secondary School) Chibok in 2014,’ it added, releasing a picture of a young woman and a child.

Since the Chibok school mass abduction militants have carried out several mass abductions and deadly attacks on schools in northern Nigeria.

Heavily-armed criminal gangs in northwest and central Nigeria often attack villages to loot, steal cattle and abduct for ransom, but since the start of last year have increasingly targeted schools and colleges. 

In March 2021, 279 girls were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School in remote Jangebe village. 

They were all also subsequently released, a governor of Zamfara state told an AFP journalist. 

Gunmen also kidnapped 140 students from a boarding school in northwestern Nigeria in July last year. 

A total of 25 of these students and one teacher were rescued, police in Kaduna state state.

A group of girls previously kidnapped from their boarding school in northern Nigeria arrive on March 2, 2021 at the Government House in Gusau, Zamfara State upon their release

Gunmen killed three people in August 2021 at an agricultural college in Nigeria’s northwest Zamfara state and kidnapped 15 students among others, school officials and police said.

At the College of Agriculture and Animal Science in Bakura a policeman and two security officers were killed and 20, including 15 students were abducted.

ISIS extremists also callously executed 20 Christians in Nigeria in a bloodthirsty rampage to ‘avenge the killing of the group’s leaders in the Middle East’ this May. 

The terrorist group published footage of the ruthless killings, showing the masked knife and gun-wielding fanatics standing behind their kneeling victims.

The militants carried out the merciless executions in Borno state where rival Islamist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP) have been abducting, looting and killing on a huge scale as they try to establish Shariah law and stop Western education.

All the groups in one area has led to infighting, AfP reported. But also reduced conflict as last year the Nigeria Army announced that more than 1,000 Boko Haram members and their families had recently surrendered ‘due to the intense pressure from troops’ sustained offensive actions’. 

More than 35,000 people have died and millions have been displaced by the extremist violence, according to the UN Development Program and 18.5 million Nigerian children have no access to education.

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