Troops rescue 200 girls, 93 women from Sambisa

He said on his twitter handle that at least three major terrorist camps were destroyed in the well-coordinated attacks that included the destruction of the notorious Tokumbere camp in the Sambisa forest.Olukolade said he could neither confirm the identity of the freed victims nor their origin. He could not say also if any of them […]

He said on his twitter handle that at least three major terrorist camps were destroyed in the well-coordinated attacks that included the destruction of the notorious Tokumbere camp in the Sambisa forest.
Olukolade said he could neither confirm the identity of the freed victims nor their origin. He could not say also if any of them was from Chibok until after thorough screening and proper investigations.
He said: “I can only confirm the rescue this afternoon of 200 girls and 93 women in different camps in the forest. We are yet to determine their origin as all the freed persons are now being screened and profiled. Please don’t misquote me on their origin. We will provide more details later.”
Diplomats and intelligence officials say they believed at least some of the girls were being held in the forest about 100 km (60 miles) from Chibok, although U.S. reconnaissance drones failed to find them.
The girls and women will be screened on Wednesday to determine whether they had been abducted or if they were married to the militants, one intelligence source told Reuters.
“Now they are excited about their freedom,” he said. “Tomorrow there will be screenings to determine whether they are Boko Haram wives, whether they are from Chibok, how long they have been in the camps, and if they have children.”
Some of the girls were injured, and some of the militants killed, he said without giving more details.
The group was rescued on Tuesday afternoon from camps, “discovered near or on the way to Sambisa,” one army official said.
Nigerian forces backed by warplanes invaded the vast former colonial game reserve late last week as part of a push to win back territory from the group.
The group, notorious for violence against civilians, controlled an area roughly the size of Belgium at the start of the year but has since been beaten back by Nigerian troops, backed by Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
While the Nigerian army maintains the group is now hemmed in Sambisa Forest, militants have managed to launch attacks in the neighbourhood including chasing soldiers out of Marte town and an island on Lake Chad.
More than 200 schoolgirls abducted from their school dormitories by Boko Haram militants last year are not among the nearly 300 girls and women rescued in an army operation on Tuesday, an army spokesman said.
“The troops rescued 200 abducted girls (not Chibok girls) and 93 women,” Colonel Sani Usman told Reuters in a text message.
Daily Trust reports that few days after the Chibok girls were abducted from their schools one year ago, the military said most of the girls had been rescued and that only eight were still missing. The military, through Major General Chris Olukolade, later said the report that most of the girls had been freed was not true.