Nigeria rescues 76 schoolgirls after Boko Haram attack, others missing

The Nigerian military rescued 76 schoolgirls and recovered the bodies of two others on Wednesday, after the students went missing during a Boko Haram attack on a village, three parents, a resident and a local government official said.

More than 90 schoolgirls were feared missing after the attack on the village of Dapchi in the northeastern state of Yobe, sources said on Wednesday.

Reuters was unable to determine the situation of the remaining missing students.

Weapon of war

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.

Some 300 children 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 nine years of conflict.

In Chibok, the military initially claimed the students had all been found but was forced to backtrack when parents and the school principal said otherwise.

As the issue gained world attention, spawning the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, the then president Goodluck Jonathan was increasingly criticised for his lacklustre response.

The mass abduction and Jonathan's handling of it wasseen as contributing to his 2015 election defeat to Muhammadu Buhari, who promised to bring the Boko Haram insurgency to an end.

But despite Buhari's repeated claims the group is weakened to the point of defeat, civilians remain vulnerable to suicide attacks and hit-and-run raids in the remote northeast.

Security analysts saidon Tuesday that government ransom payments to secure the release of the Chibok girls could have given the under-pressure group ideas for financing.

"They need money for arms, ammunition, vehicles, to keep their army of fighters moving across the borders," said Amaechi Nwokolo, from the Roman Institute of International Studies.

"They're spending a lot of money on arms and logistics."

(With inputs from Agencies)