Nigerian girl kidnapped 2 years ago found alive

First Lady Michelle Obama is seen holding a sign calling for the safe return of 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2014.

By Michelle Faul and Haruna Umar

Associated Press

First Lady Michelle Obama is seen holding a sign calling for the safe return of 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2014.
First Lady Michelle Obama is seen holding a sign calling for the safe return of 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2014.

LAGOS, Nigeria – One of the teenagers kidnapped by Boko Haram extremists over two years ago from a boarding school in northeastern Nigeria has been found with a baby and was reunited with her mother, a doctor said Wednesday – the first of the Chibok girls to be recovered since the mass abduction.

The 19-year-old woman, described by an uncle as traumatized by her experience, was found wandering with her baby on Tuesday on the fringes of the remote Sambisa Forest, which is located near Nigeria’s border with Cameroon.

The news gave hope to the families of the 218 girls who are still missing and may provide information as to their whereabouts. But the young woman told her mother that some of the Chibok girls have died in captivity and the others still are being held, according to her family’s doctor, Idriss Danladi, who spoke to The Associated Press after talking with the mother.

Other Chibok girls may have been rescued by soldiers hunting down Boko Haram in the Sambisa Forest on Tuesday night, said Chibok community leader Pogu Bitrus. But it turned out later those girls were from elsewhere, said Awami Nkeki, secretary of the Chibok local government council.

On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram stormed and firebombed the Government Girls Secondary School at Chibok and seized 276 girls preparing for science exams. Dozens managed to escape in the first hours, but 219 remained captive.

The young woman is the first of those captives to be found since the kidnapping, which grabbed worldwide attention and put a spotlight on the violence of Nigeria’s homegrown Islamic extremists.

“God reigns!” one of the founders of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, Oby Ezekwesili, trumpeted on social media. “OUR #ChibokGirl … IS BACK!!!!!!! #218ShallBeBack because #HopeEndures.”

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