Nigerian Military Rescues 200 Girls From Boko Haram

Nigeria's military said Wednesday it rescued 200 girls and 93 women in an operation against Boko Haram militants in the Sambisa Forest.

The Nigerian Armed Forces said it could not confirm whether the girls were the same as those kidnapped in Chibok last year, but The Associated Press quoted army spokesman Col. Sani Usman as saying these were different girls.

The military said that troops captured and destroyed three Boko Haram camps and that those who were rescued were being screened and interviewed.

In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from Chibok, in Nigeria's northeast, and took them into the Sambisa Forest. Several dozen escaped and more than 200 are still missing.

The Islamist group has kidnapped thousands of girls, women and young men. As NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reported April 14, a new Amnesty International report said Boko Haram had kidnapped at least 2,000 girls and women since the beginning of 2014; many have been trained to fight and forced into sexual slavery.