Almost all of the more than 100 schoolgirls kidnapped from the Nigerian town of Dapchi last month have been brought home after they were released by Boko Haram, according to witnesses.
The survivors said only one of the 110 girls remained captured, while five died in captivity, relatives of the freed girls told the Reuters news agency.
Umar Hassan, a resident of Dapchi described the moment the girls were freed. He said many fled upon hearing that Boko Haram insurgents were headed into the town again.
He said that while in hiding, residents saw the missing girls get out of the Boko Haram vehicles.
A second resident, Kachallah Musa, said the militants later left without any confrontation.
A witness in the town of Dapchi said the fighters told residents they had returned the girls "out of pity".
"And don't ever put your daughters in school again," they warned.
Boko Haram translates as "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language
Nigeria’s military has dismissed as “outright falsehood” an Amnesty International report that claimed security forces were warned several times ahead of the schoolgirls’ abduction.
The attack by suspected Boko Haram extremists caused fresh outrage in Africa’s most populous country and reminded many of the group’s abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in 2014.
Amnesty International cited sources including security officials and witnesses who said military and police received at least five calls in the hours before the attack.
The rights group said on Tuesday that no lessons had been learned from Chibok and urged Nigeria’s government to make public its investigation into the new attack in Dapchi town.
Nigeria’s acting director of defence information John Agim said no security force was informed of the mass abduction.
The Dapchi abduction has piled pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 promising to crack down on Boko Haram’s nine-year-old insurgency and could face the voters again next year.
Additional reporting by agencies
