A gang that abducted 13 young women and girls aged 16 to 23 from farmlands near a nature reserve in Borno State last week has released the remaining 12 captives, with local council president Abubakar Mazhinyi confirming, “All the 12 were released,” and adding that they were taken to hospital after their ordeal.
According to him, “They (jihadists) spoke to the parents,” and “It was the parents that went to the bush,” while no ransom was paid as the women were freed due to military pursuit. One of the captives had earlier been released after stating she was nursing a baby.
The incident comes amid a nationwide rise in abductions, with ongoing violence in the northeast involving Boko Haram and ISWAP, a conflict that has killed over 40,000 people and displaced more than two million, while recent mass kidnappings by criminal gangs in other regions have seen hundreds of students seized, many of whom remain in captivity.