Pregnant Woman Rescued Days Ago Was Abducted 10 Years Ago as a Schoolgirl

The Nigerian Army announced the rescue of Lydia Simon, who says she was one of 276 girls kidnapped from their school in Chibok in 2014

The Nigerian Army said Thursday that its soldiers rescued a pregnant mother of three who was once abducted by extremists a decade ago when she was a schoolgirl.

The army made the announcement about Lydia Simon’s dramatic rescue in a social media post on Thursday. The post included a photo of Simon’s and her children, who the army says were rescued by Nigerian troops in the area of Gwoza in Borno State.

The army said in its announcement that its troops acted on intelligence intercepted from the alleged extremists who were holding Simon. The extremists were armed with assault-style rifles “and other dangerous weapons,” according to the Nigerian Army. The Nigerian troops “laid wait” for the suspects and then engaged in a gun battle, killing three of Simon’s captors while rescuing her and her children.

Simon was one of 276 girls who were kidnapped from their school in Chibok in April 2014, according to The Associated Press. The outlet reports that about 82 of the girls who were kidnapped are still being held by extremists.

“Lydia was five months pregnant at the time of her rescue,” the Nigerian Army said in its social media post, adding that she informed her rescuers that she was from the school in Chibok after they saved her.

The 2014 kidnapping was one of the first in a series of mass school kidnappings in the region. The incident shocked the world and led to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign on social media, which called for the safe return of the nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted by extremists.

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Simon’s rescue comes days after the 10-year anniversary of the kidnapping. The AP recently reported that despite the high-profile kidnappings in the region over the last decade, schools in the country still have many security flaws.

Only about “43-percent of minimum safety standards” are shown to have been met in more than 6,000 schools that were surveyed by the United Nations children’s agency’s Nigeria office, according to the AP.

Yakubu Nkeki, the chairman of the Chibok girls’ parents’ association, told the AP the association has not yet been informed of Simon’s rescue and that officials are still waiting for a call from the government to inform them of Simon’s safe return.

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