Schoolgirls
Nigeria: Scores of schoolgirls still missing after attack on Dapchi school
Yobe State government, North-East Nigeria, has confirmed that some of the missing Dapchi Boarding schoolgirls have been rescued.
Reports on Wednesday said some 111 schoolgirls were unaccounted for after suspected Boko Haram terrorists attacked the school. The Government Girls Science Technical College in Dapchi, Bursari Local Government Area, of Yobe State was attacked on Monday.
Later in the day, the state government said some of the girls have been rescued: “The Yobe State Government hereby informs the public that some of the girls at Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC) whose school was attacked by Boko Haram terrorists last Monday have been rescued by gallant officers and men of the Nigerian Army from the terrorists who abducted them.
“The rescued girls are now in the custody of the Nigerian Army,” Abdullahi Bego, a spokesperson to the governor said in the statement.
Mr. Bego said the state will provide more details about the number of girls rescued and their condition later.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on Wednesday dispatched three ministers to Yobe to review the situation there while asking soldiers to ensure adequate security for the school and the community.
Initially, the students were reported to have fled the attack with their teachers at the sound of gunfire.
A senior military source in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, told AFP news agency that the schoolgirls “were found abducted on the border between Yobe and Borno.
“The girls were abandoned with their vehicle. It had broken down and the terrorists panicked because they were under siege by pursuing soldiers.
“The fear is that some of the other girls [from Dapchi] may have been taken along by the terrorists because the girls were not in a single vehicle.
“Only those in the broken down vehicle were lucky.”