More than 60 women and girls abducted last month by suspected Boko Haram militants in northeast Nigeria have escaped their captors, sources said Sunday, but more than 200 schoolgirls are still being held by the Islamists.
Local vigilante Abbas Gava said he had "received an alert from my colleagues ... that about 63 of the abducted women and girls had made it back home" late Friday.
A high-level security source in the Borno state capital Maiduguri, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, confirmed the escape.
Gava, a senior official of the local vigilantes in Borno who are working closely with security officials, told journalists the women escaped when their captors went out to fight.
"They took the bold step when their abductors moved out to carry out an operation," he said.
Clashes took place between the Islamists and the army late Friday after an attack by the insurgents in the town of Damboa, where 53 of them and six soldiers were killed, the army had said.
The rebels attacked barracks and a police station while most of the troops were out on patrol in surrounding villages.
Spokesmen for the armed forces or the government could not be reached Sunday for comment on the latest developments in the kidnapping cases.
More than 200 still missing
Activists of the Bring Back Our Girls movement meanwhile tried to march on the presidential palace in Abuja Sunday to pressure the government over the fate of more than 200 girls kidnapped in Chibok, in Borno, on April 14, but were asked by security forces to turn back.
"It's 83 days today that the girls have been abducted," activist Aisha Yesufu told the press.
"We have been coming out for 68 days and nobody has really listened to us," Yesufu told reporters after the march.
That is why the group "decided that we should just take the protest back to the president so that he will know that we are still out there after the 68 days that we have been coming out daily".
Of the 276 girls seized in April, 57 have escaped while 219 are still missing.
Villagers from the town where Boko Haram abducted the girls appealed to the United Nations on Friday to intervene because of the worsening violence in their region.
The community claimed militants were running amok in their area, seemingly with impunity.
A state of emergency imposed in Borno and neighbouring Yobe and Adamawa in May last year forced its fighters out of urban centres.
But that has come at the expense of protecting people in the countryside, where attacks have increased dramatically, almost on a daily basis, analysts say.
Amnesty International claimed in May that military commanders in Borno had advance warning of the Chibok abduction but could not muster enough troops to send.
The insurgents' kidnap of the schoolgirls in April provoked international outrage and drew unprecedented global attention to the Islamist uprising.
Security experts say the overstretched and under-resourced military is incapable of waging an effective counterinsurgency against the Boko Haram militants, who have killed thousands in their five-year campaign for an independent Islamic state in the north.
AFP
Mon Jul 07 2014
-filepic
Industri minyak sawit disaran guna semula sisa untuk bahan api penerbangan mampan - Liew
Industri minyak sawit perlu mengkaji penggunaan semula sisa sebagai stok suapan penting untuk bahan api penerbangan mampan (SAF), di luar penggunaan tradisional minyak sawit.
SDG: UTP lahir pelajar berkemahiran, tinggi tanggungjawab sosial
UTP berhasrat mendidik pelajar bukan sahaja untuk mahir dalam aspek teknikal tetapi juga untuk menjadi warganegara yang bertanggungjawab.
MAA semak semula unjuran jualan kenderaan 2024 kepada 765,000 unit
Persatuan Automotif Malaysia (MAA) telah menyemak semula unjuran jualan kenderaan bermotor baharu bagi 2024 kepada 765,000 unit daripada anggaran sebelumnya sebanyak 740,000 unit.
RUU 355: Pindaan perlu untuk praktikaliti, keadilan
Apa sahaja pindaan terhadap akta itu perlu berjalan selari dengan persediaan mereka yang bertanggungjawab melaksanakannya.
Rasionalisasi RON95 dijangka beri impak lebih besar kepada PKS - SAMENTA
SAMENTA menjangkakan rasionalisasi RON95 akan memberi impak yang lebih besar kepada perusahaan kecil dan sederhana (PKS) berbanding pelarasan subsidi diesel.
Malaysia sasar pengeluaran 40 peratus sektor akuakultur menjelang 2030
Malaysia menyasarkan pengeluaran 40 peratus hasil sektor akuakultur menjelang 2030 dalam usaha membantu mengimbangi keperluan perikanan negara.
10 Berita Pilihan - (16 Julai 2024
Antara pelbagai berita dalam dan luar negara yang disiarkan di Astro AWANI, berikut adalah yang paling menjadi tumpuan sepanjang hari ini.
PAC beri tempoh tiga bulan kepada HRD Corp
Jawatankuasa Kira-kira Wang Negara (PAC) memberi tempoh tiga bulan kepada Perbadanan Pembangunan Sumber Manusia (HRD Corp) untuk mengemukakan laporan tindakan susulan terhadap syor jawatankuasa itu.
Kylian Mbappe tandatangan kontrak dengan Real Madrid
Bintang bola sepak Perancis Kylian Mbappe menandatangani kontrak selama lima tahun dengan kelab Sepanyol Real Madrid pada Selasa.
Pelepasan ketujuh air sisa nuklear Fukushima ke laut selesai
Jepun telah menyelesaikan pusingan ketujuh pelepasan air sisa radioaktif yang dirawat dari loji kuasa nuklear Fukushima Daiichi ke Lautan Pasifik pada Selasa.
Lebih 100 pelajar Nigeria berjaya diselamatkan tentera
Tentera Nigeria telah menyelamatkan pelajar dan kakitangan yang diculik oleh lelaki bersenjata dari sebuah sekolah di utara negara itu.
10 terbunuh dalam serangan Boko Haram
Organisasi pengganas itu menyasarkan pekerja di ladang, dengan sembilan lagi mangsa diculik.
Boko Haram dakwa tembak jatuh jet tentera udara Nigeria
Dalam video dipercayai daripada Boko Haram, tertera tulisan "NAF 475" pada bangkai pesawat yang hangus terbakar.
Lebih 300 murid diculik militan Boko Haram dibebaskan
Kesemua 344 kanak-kanak itu telah dibawa pulang oleh pihak keselamatan.
50 lelaki bersenjata serbu kampung, culik 15 gadis
Seramai 15 remaja perempuan telah diculik oleh sekumpulan lelaki bersenjata dalam kejadian di tenggara Niger, pada Sabtu.
Cameroon tubuh pusat latihan vokasional untuk bekas pejuang Boko Haram
Beliau membuat pengumuman itu di pangkalan pasukan petugas multinasional di Mora yang terletak dalam rantau Utara Jauh, Cameroon ketika bertemu kira-kira 100 bekas pejuang Boko Haram.
Nigeria sabitkan 205 suspek anggota Boko Haram
Sabitan ke atas sejumlah 205 individu dalam perbicaraan beramai-ramai itu menandakan tamatnya peringkat kedua cabaran perundangan terbesar di Nigeria terhadap Boko Haram.
Boko Haram bebas 13 tebusan kepada kerajaan Nigeria
Tiga daripada tebusan itu adalah pensyarah dari Universiti Maiduguri yang diculik semasa perjalanan penjelajahan minyak di Magumeri, di timur laut Borno, pada Julai 2017.
50 maut dalam serangan bunuh diri di Nigeria
Tiada pihak mengaku bertanggungjawab, namun polis percaya serangan didalangi puak pelampau Boko Haram.
Serangan bom di Nigeria, 18 terbunuh
Kejadian berlaku kira-kira pukul 8.15 malam waktu tempatan, pada Rabu, selepas empat orang dipercayai pengebom bunuh diri meluru masuk ke kawasan tempat masyarakat Islam sembahyang di Muna Gari.