Dapchi Schoolgirls: Nigeria announces 101 releases

Good news, but little detail for the moment, in Nigeria after this announcement by the government on Wednesday morning in a statement announcing the release of at least 101 girls kidnapped in Dapchi, on February 19th. A total of 110 female students were kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamists.

According to the response of parents that RFI was able to collect, they arrived on board nine vehicles and were lodged on the morning of Wednesday, March 21, around 8 am local time in front of the school where they had been abducted a little more a month.

There was no security force there at the time, so their kidnappers, suspected members of Boko Haram, left immediately.

For the moment, it is difficult to know exactly how many girls have been released. A communique from the Ministry of Information first reported 76 girls released

. The official figure has just increased to 101 because the count is still in progress. A father who was contacted this morning in Dapchi, assures that 105 out of 110 girls were released and that five of them died during their captivity.

The girls are now in the hands of the medical staff dispatched to the scene. But the conditions of this release are already extremely reactive and pose many questions, including the possible payment of a large ransom.

The relative speed with which this release took place suggests that the administration of Muhammadu Buhari wanted to accelerate the negotiations to avoid political complications, within a year of the presidential election.