In a development offering a glimmer of hope after a decade of despair, the Nigerian Army announced the rescue of another Chibok schoolgirl on Wednesday.
Lydia Simon, abducted alongside 275 others from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok in 2014, was found by troops of Operation Desert Sanity III in Borno State.
According to military sources who spoke to Zagazola Makama, Lydia, who is five months pregnant, was found with three children in Gwoza county. Reports say she escaped from the captivity of Boko Haram insurgents. This brings the total number of rescued Chibok girls to 108, with many others still unaccounted for.
The news comes just days after the 10th anniversary of the mass abduction, a harrowing event that shocked the world. The kidnapping of the schoolgirls became a rallying cry against Boko Haram’s brutality and a symbol of the ongoing fight for girls’ education in Nigeria.
Lydia is currently receiving medical care and undergoing a debriefing process. The road to recovery will be long, but her rescue offers a beacon of hope for the families still waiting for their daughters to return.
—Ezinwanne Onwuka reports for TruthNigeria from Abuja.
