293 women rescued from Boko Haram camps

April 29, 2015 7:47 AM

About 293 girls and women have been rescued by the Nigerian army from the camps of Boko Haram.

The armed forces could not immediately confirm if any of the rescued girls were among the 200 schoolgirls the militant group Boko Haram kidnapped in April 2014

Nigerian troops rescued 200 girls and 93 women Tuesday in the Sambisa Forest, the Nigerian Armed Forces announced on its official Twitter account.

The armed forces could not immediately confirm if any of the rescued girls were among the 200 schoolgirls the militant group Boko Haram kidnapped in April 2014 from the northeastern Nigerian village of Chibok. That abduction led to a social media movement, #BringBackOurGirls, to rescue them.

Nigerian troops also captured and destroyed three terrorist camps, the armed forces said.

Boko Haram is a militant Islamist group. The name translates to "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language.

The group has said its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.

Source: CNN