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Yusuf Idris, spokesman for regional governor Bello Matawalle, said on Tuesday that the 279 girls had been returned to safety and had all been found.
The girls arrived in the wee hours of Tuesday morning at the Zamfara government headquarters, where they were dressed in identical pastel hijabs.
Idris said they were in “good condition” although some of them had open wounds on their feet and received medical treatment.
Some of the girls recounted their ordeal at the hands of the kidnappers. “Most of us got injured feet and we couldn’t keep walking, so they (their captors) said they would shoot anyone who didn’t keep walking,” Umma Abubakar told reporters. gathered at state headquarters on Tuesday.
“We crossed a river and they hid us and let us sleep under shrubs in a forest.”
Officials initially said 317 students were taken from the government girls’ secondary school in Jangebe, but Idris said that figure was incorrect.
Kidnapping for ransom is rife in parts of Nigeria and has become a major security challenge. State governors regularly pay ransoms to keep victims safe, but rarely admit to doing so.
Idris said no ransom was paid for the girls’ release, telling CNN that the kidnapped girls were released after “repentant bandits” acted as intermediaries to negotiate their release.
“They said the kidnappers treated them fairly. They were provided with food but they had no place to sleep, no bed or mattress and they had to walk barefoot. was their worst experience in life, ”he added.
Buhari responded to the girls’ release on Tuesday by tweeting that “the news brings overwhelming joy” and that he was “happy that their ordeal ended happily without any incident.”
“We are working hard to put an end to these gruesome and heartbreaking incidents of kidnapping. The army and police will continue to attack the kidnappers,” he said.
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