Nigeria Says Boko Haram Has Freed Kidnapped Girls
- Militants told parents to keep girls out of Western schools
- Islamist militants have been fighting government since 2009
The Government Girls Technical College in Dapchi, Nigeria after the abductions.
Photographer: Aminu Abubakar/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Nigeria said Islamist militants freed more than 100 schoolgirls they seized last month from the northeastern town of Dapchi.
At least 102 girls have been released, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said by phone Wednesday. Five others died of suffocation when they were forced into a tightly packed truck during their abduction, 15-year-old Khadija Grema, one of the girls, told reporters. Boko Haram militants are believed to be holding at least one other for refusing to convert to Islam, a lawmaker for the area, Goni Bukar, said by phone from Abuja, the capital.