Nigerian Army Rescues Women And Girls From Boko Haram

A soldier from the Nigerian Army talks to women and children who were freed from Boko Haram, in Yola, according to smh.au.

The army on Thursday vowed to free more hostages from Boko Haram after rescuing almost 500 from terrible conditions this week in the group's Sambisa Forest stronghold.

"The assault on the forest is continuing from various fronts and efforts are concentrated on rescuing hostages of civilians and destroying all terrorist camps and facilities in the forest," said Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Chris Olukolade, according to thestar.

He vowed that the army would "comprehensively" clean out the forest, adding: "There is great hope for recovery of more hostages of the terrorists."

As Sambisa Forest is the "last holdout of the Islamic militants" President Goodluck Jonathan pledged Thursday that he would "hand over a Nigeria completely free of terrorist strongholds."

Last Thursday the army pointed out that 160 hostages had been brought out from the dense game reserve, while 200 girls and 93 women had been rescued on Tuesday.

Since last year, the militants had abducted 2,000 women and girls.

Netsanet Belay, the Africa Director for a human rights group, Research and Advocacy, said though it was a "cause for celebration", he warned that "This is just the tip of the iceberg.

"There are thousands more women and girls, and men and boys, who have been abducted by Boko Haram," he said.

Many of the hostages remember their abduction with a shudder, as they had been into "forced labour, sexual and psychological abuse as well as forced to fight on the frontline alongside the rebels."

The army released a number of pictures that showed the rescued women and children in remote areas, watched over by soldiers.

After an aerial bombing, the rescue had been carried out. It raised hopes that a few of the 219 girls snatched from their school last year were among the hostages.

Their priority was to get them to safety, and then identify their real identities, said Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade.

"Whoever they may be, the important thing is that Nigerians held captive under very severe and inhuman conditions have been freed by our gallant troops," he said. "We are still trying to compute the actual number of those rescued. But tentatively there are about 60 women of various ages and around 100 children."

At some points, the women were used as human shields, while in some cases, they fired back at soldiers till they were subdued.