Nigeria frees more hostages
Abuja---Nigeria's army has rescued nearly 700 hostages from Boko Haram captivity over the past week, but uncertainty remained on Saturday over the fate of the 219 girls seized from their school last year in a kidnapping that sparked outrage across the world.
In the latest rescue, "234 women and children were rescued through the Kawuri and Konduga end of Sambisa forest on Thursday," the defence headquarters said in a statement late Friday.
"They have been evacuated to join others at the place of ongoing screening," it said, adding that the latest batch was "in addition to the previous individuals earlier rescued during the ongoing operation in the area."
Around 500 women and children have already been freed by the military from the Islamists in the past few days.
The military said the "assault on the forest is continuing from various fronts and efforts are concentrated on rescuing hostages or civilians and destroying all terrorists camps and facilities in the forest."
Army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman told AFP Saturday that troops faced little resistance in their latest rescue operation.
"So, there were no casualties sustained among the rescued hostages this time. They are traumatised and some of them are sick," he said.
Usman said the hostages would undergo screening to "determine their status, whether they are hostages or terrorist fighters."
"Terrorists are known to use women in their terrorist acts and have used them as suicide bombers. Therefore there is need for thorough investigation to establish their true identities".
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