Scores of female students kidnapped by Islamic militants from a northeastern Nigerian school are free, Nigeria's military reported Wednesday, according to CNN.
Only eight of more than 100 students are unaccounted for, Major General Chris Olukolade said in a statement that gave no details, CNN reported. "The others have been freed this evening," he said.
The government had reported that security forces were in hot pursuit of militants who abducted more than 100 females from a high school early Tuesday, according to CNN.
Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima told reporters that 129 students were kidnapped and at least 14 freed themselves, CNN reported. Four of the students who are aged between 16 and 18, jumped off the back of a truck and 10 escaped into the bush when the extremists asked them to cook and were not paying attention, CNN reported.
The abductions came hours after an explosion blamed on extremists killed 75 people in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, angering citizens who are questioning government and military claims that they are containing a 5-year-old Islamic uprising, according to CNN. Two more attacks killed 20 people Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in northeastern Nigerian villages.
While the military claims that they have cornered insurgents in a remote northeast corner of the West African nation, attacks have increased in frequency and becoming more deadly, CNN reported. More than 1,500 people have been killed this year, compared to an estimated 3,600 between 2010 and 2013.
Shettima told reporters Wednesday that the insurgents arrived at Chibok government Secondary School for Girls wearing military fatigues and posing as soldiers, a common tactic used by the insurgents, according to CNN.
The school principal believed the men were soldiers removing the young women for their own safety, but it was only as the armed men were leaving and killed a soldier and a police officer guarding the school did he realize his mistake, CNN reported.
