DHAKA: Nigeria troops have freed some 700 women and children from Boko Haram’s Sambisa forest stronghold over the past week, but uncertainty remained on Saturday over the fate of 219 girls seized from their school in Chibok last year in a kidnapping that sparked global outrage.

In the latest rescue, ‘234 women and children were rescued through the Kawuri and Konduga end of Sambisa forest on Thursday,’ the defense headquarters said in a statement late Friday, The Straits Times publishes this report on Saturday.

‘They have been evacuated to join others at the place of ongoing screening,’ it said, adding that the latest batch was ‘in addition to the previous individuals earlier rescued during the ongoing operation in the area’.

Around 500 women and children have already been freed by the military from the Islamists in the past few days.

BDST: 2101 HRS, MAY 02, 2015
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