Nigeria girls rescued after latest Boko Haram kidnapping

In Northern Nigeria, the Yobe state government says some of the girls from the Government Girls Science Technical College have been rescued following an attack by Boko Haram.

Boko Haram Leader Abubakar Shekau in front of his fighters © AFP PHOTO / BOKO HARAM

On Monday, the girls college was attacked by the Islamist group Boko Haram.

According to school staff, there were 710 students at the secondary school in Dapchi, which caters for girls aged 11 and older.

In a press release late Wednesday night, the Yobe state government confirmed that some of the girls were rescued by officers from the Nigerian Army.

The Yobe state governor Ibrahim Gaidam said over 50 are still unaccounted for while the state police commissioner said 111 are still missing.

"Eight hundred and fifteen students returned to the school and were visibly seen, out of 926 in the school," said state police commissioner Abdulmaliki Sumonu.

"The rest are missing. No case of abduction has so far been established," he told reporters in the Yobe state capital, Damaturu.

Boko Haram tactic

The length of time since the attack and Boko Haram's use of kidnapping as a weapon during its nearly nine-year insurgency has increased fears of another mass abduction.

Parents and authorities fear a repeat of the attack on a school in Chibok in 2014 when 276 girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram.

Fifty-seven escaped in the immediate aftermath and since May last year, 107 have either escaped or been released as part of a government-brokered deal.

Boko Haram has seized thousands of women and young girls, as well as men and boys of fighting age during the conflict, which has left at least 20,000 dead since 2009.

They include some 300 children who were among 500 people abducted from the town of Damasak in November 2014.

Getting accurate information from the remote northeast remains difficult. The army still largely controls access and infrastructure has been devastated by the conflict.