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Boko Haram frees 192 people held in NE Nigeria
AFP
By Aminu Abubakar 2 hours ago
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A screengrab taken on October 2, 2014 from a video released by the Nigerian Isla
mist extremist group Boko Haram show the group's leader Abubakar Shekau
.
View gallery
.
Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - Boko Haram has released nearly 200 hostages, most of them
women, who were kidnapped from a village in the northeast Nigerian state of Yob
e, a community leader and a military source told AFP Saturday.
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A total of 192 people were released on Friday from two Islamist enclaves, where
they had been kept since a January 6 raid on Katarko, 20 kilometres (12 miles) f
rom the state capital Damaturu.
In all, 218 women and children were abducted.
"Boko Haram have released 192 of our women they kidnapped early this month," Gon
i Mari, a Katarko community leader told AFP from Damaturu.
"They brought them in two batches in four trucks and dropped them at Girbuwa vil
lage, eight kilometres from Damaturu, from where we conveyed them to the city an
d they were taken into government custody."
The raid on Katarko saw dozens of Boko Haram gunmen storm the village, where the
y killed 25 men and burnt homes and businesses before kidnapping the women and c
hildren.
The attack was apparently in retaliation over a raid by local hunters and vigila
ntes in nearby Buni Yadi, where several militants were killed and scores more ar
rested, vigilantes said at the time.
But with Boko Haram raids a near daily occurence in the restive northeast, and n
o precise figures on the numbers of people taken, the attack received little pub
licity.
Boko Haram fought running battles with troops in Damaturu the following Friday,
again in an apparent reprisal to the Buni Yadi raid.
View gallery
This April 21, 2014 photo shows the Chibok public school …
This April 21, 2014 photo shows the Chibok public school where more than 200 sch
oolgirls were abduct
A military officer, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to spe
ak to the media, also confirmed the release of the hostages.
Mass abduction has been a feature of Boko Haram's bloody six-year insurgency, wi
th young men and boys forcibly conscripted to fight alongside the militants.

Women and young girls have been taken to be wives for the Islamists, with report
s from those who were freed or escaped of forced labour, sexual and psychologica
l abuse.
- Young boys still held Mari said his wife, two daughters and seven-year old son were among the released
hostages, who were taken by the authorities to a primary school.
But he said Boko Haram was still holding 26 young boys, including his 10-year ol
d son.
His seven-year-old son was rescued after his mother disguised him as a girl in h
ijab.
The official added that the hostages said they were released because they refuse
d to fight alongside the militants, who called them "infidels".
"From the information my wife told me, they were asked by their captors if they
wanted to join Boko Haram and fight jihad with them," Mari said.
"When they declined they packed them into four trucks and dumped them at Girbuwa
and told them to go and meet their fellow infidels in Damaturu."
A local politician from the area, who asked not to be identified, said Boko Hara
m kept the hostages in the town of Buni Yadi and Ajigin village, which they seiz
ed several months ago.
"They (Boko Haram) are still holding 26 young boys they abducted along with the
released hostages in Katarko," the politician confirmed.
Human Rights Watch said in a report published in October last year that more tha
n 500 women and girls have been abducted since the start of the insurgency in 20
09.
But other estimates put the figure far higher.
Boko Haram's most notorious mass abduction was in April last year, when it seize
d 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, in Borno State, triggering global out
rage.
Fifty-seven managed to escape but 219 are still being held.
Last month at least 185 people, including women and children, were kidnapped dur
ing an attack in the town of Gumsuri, some 70 kilometres from Chibok.