Boko Haram frees 110 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls
- Zachary Basu, author of Axios Sneak Peek
Four Nigerian schoolgirls from Government Girls Technical College who escaped the Boko Haram attack. Photo by AMINU ABUBAKAR/AFP/Getty Images
Islamist extremist group Boko Haram has returned 110 of the girls kidnapped from a Nigerian boarding school last month, reports the AP.
Why it matters: Boko Haram, which means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language, has carried out several mass abductions in the last few years, most notably in 2014 when extremists kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok. No ransom payment was made this time, the government says, but the fighters did issue an ominous warning: "We did it out of pity. And don’t ever put your daughters in school again.”
Go deeper: Security forces failed to act on warnings about Boko Haram attack