The Nigerian army said Thursday it has rescued one of the girls kidnapped from the town of Chibok by Boko Haram militants nearly four years ago.
The army said on its Twitter feed that troops deployed in the northeastern town of Pulka rescued a girl it identified as Salomi Pagu. Officials said that according to preliminary investigations, Pagu is the same person as the one on a list of girls who were abducted.
The army said Pagu was found in the company of another girl and a child and that all are in safe custody and receiving medical attention.
Boko Haram provoked worldwide outrage when it kidnapped more than 270 girls and young women from a secondary school in Chibok on April 14, 2014. Some of the girls quickly escaped, but 219 remained in the Islamist radical group’s captivity.
A few have since escaped, and negotiations with the government have led to the release of more than 100 others; but, more than 100 of the girls are believed to still be under Boko Haram control.
The group has been fighting the government since 2009 to establish a strict Islamic state in the northern part of the country.