Nigeria's military announced Tuesday that some of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in April have been released, only to retract the statement hours later.
Army spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade told the BBC that some of the girls abducted from their boarding school in Borno state were freed and are now safe in military barracks.
But Olukolade later revised his statement saying there are girls in the army's custody, but they are not from the Borno state village of Chibok, where some 300 schoolgirls were taken April 14. Many were able to escape their captors, but over 200 are still missing.
Officials are trying to confirm the identities of the girls in custody, the general told the BBC.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden," has killed, abducted and terrorized civilians across northern Nigeria in an effort to establish a strict form of Islamic rule. Attacks and raids have intensified in recent years, with a state of emergency being declared in the northeast in May 2013, according to the BBC.
Nigeria's military has taken international heat for not doing enough to save the schoolgirls and defeat Boko Haram.
On Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said more than 130 militants surrendered to the military during clashes southwest of Borno's capital city of Maiduguri, CNN reported. Defense officials also claimed to have killed a man who was posing as the group's leader, named Mohammed Bashir, during fighting around Maiduguri.
"In the course of those encounters, one Mohammed Bashir who has been acting or poising on videos as the deceased Abubakar Shekau, the eccentric character known as leader of the group, died," the Defense Ministry said, according to CNN.
"Since the name Shekau has become a brand name for the terrorists' leader, the Nigerian military remains resolute to serve justice to anyone who assumes that designation or title."
Nigeria's military has announced Shekau's death on multiple occasions, the last time being in August 2013.
