Several sources, including a government official close to the negotiations were on Saturday night quoted as saying 82 more Chibok girls have been freed after successful negotiations between Boko Haram and the Nigerian government.
The sources, including security officials, a senior minister and the father of two of them told reporters on Saturday the freed Chibok girls are currently in military custody in Banki, near the Nigeria-Cameroon border in northeast and that they would be transferred to Abuja, the Federal Capital Teritory, where they will undergo medical checks and be reunited with their families.
A total of 276 girls were kidnapped from the village of Chibok in April 2014.
“I can confirm they have been released,” the minister said, while security sources in the town of Banki, in Borno state, said “at least 80 Chibok girls” had been brought there.
Enoch Mark, whose two daughters were among those missing, told AFP he had been informed of their release.
The girls were released through negotiations with the Nigerian government, one official said, asking not to be named. A military source said they were currently in Banki near the Cameroon border for medical checks before being airlifted to Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
The kidnapping was one of the most high-profile incidents of Boko Haram’s insurgency, now in its eighth year and with little sign of ending. About 220 were abducted from their school in a night-time attack.
More than 20 girls were released last October in a deal brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Others have escaped or been rescued, but 195 were believed to be still in captivity prior to this release.
President Muhammadu Buhari said last month the government was in talks to secure the release of the remaining captives.
Although the Chibok abduction is the most notorious case, Boko Haram has kidnapped thousands of adults and children, many of whose cases have been neglected.
The militants have killed more than 20,000 people and displaced more than two million during their insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria.