A student who escaped when Boko Haram rebels stormed a school and abducted schoolgirls, identifies her schoolmates from a video released by the Islamist rebel group at the Government House in Maiduguri, Borno State in 2014. Photo Credit: Reuters
The Military command in Nigeria has confirmed that it refrained from engaging elements of Boko Haram in the town of Chibok in 2014 from the air since there were indications the militant fighters were using some kidnapped girls as human shield.
Major General Lucky Irabor who is the theatre commander of Nigeria’s military campaign against Boko Haram told reporters on Wednesday that “The fighters were just using them (those kidnapped) as a shield that is why we did not engage them from the air.”
Major Irabor who was speaking in northern eastern city of Maiduguri said the Boko Haram fighters used the kidnapped girls as human shields to prevent fighter jets from firing at them.
A footage of operations in the Sambisa forest where the militant group members were fleeing showed them moving with women and children.
Major Irabor said “What we can’t tell is whether those women we can see were the Chibok girls,” he said.
200 girls were kidnapped from their school dormitories in Chibok in 2014. Some of them were rescued in separate operations this year.
Officials in Nigeria have said that the last enclave in the forest, the vast former game reserve in northeast Nigeria that was the stronghold of the militant group has now been captured.
Source: Africafeeds.com
