Nigerian army says it has rescued nearly 300 from Boko Haram hideout
LAGOS, Nigeria -- The Nigerian army says that it has rescued 200 girls and 93 women in the Sambisa Forest, but officials say they are not the schoolgirls kidnapped a year ago by Boko Haram extremists from Chibok.
The army announced the rescue on Twitter Tuesday and said it is now screening and profiling the girls and women.
Troops also captured and destroyed three terrorist camps in the forest, known as an operating area for the Boko Haram.
More than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped from Chibok in northeastern Nigeria by the Islamic extremist group in April 2014. The militants took the schoolgirls in trucks into the Sambisa Forest and the girls have been missing since. The plight of the schoolgirls has garnered international attention and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
The Nigerian army announced two weeks ago that it is going into Sambisa Forest, which is a center for the Boko Haram fighters.
Meanwhile, hundreds of skeletons of children, women and men believed killed by Boko Haram have been found in the recaptured Nigerian border town of Damasak, indicating another atrocity by the Islamic extremists, witnesses say.