Who Is Maryam Ali Maiyanga? Missing Chibok Schoolgirl Found With 10-Month-Old Son After Boko Haram Kidnapping, Nigerian Army Says

A Chibok girl, one of the over 200 schoolgirls abducted by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in 2014, has been found by Nigerian soldiers, an army spokesman said Saturday. She was found with a 10-month-old baby.

In April 2014, more than 270 schoolgirls were seized by the terrorist group from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok, in northeast Nigeria, sparking international outrage.

Maryam Ali Maiyanga was discovered while troops were screening escapees from Boko Haram’s base in the Sambisa forest in Pulka, Gwoza Local Government Area, in Borno State, Reuters quoted spokesman Sani Usman as saying.

The army spokesman added that Maiyanga was “discovered to be carrying a 10-month-old son.”

The latest announcement comes soon after 21 of the abducted girls were released last month by the jihadist organization as a result of talks with the government, which were brokered by the International Red Cross and the government of Switzerland.

Boko Haram, translating colloquially to “Western education is forbidden,” is a militant group allied with the Islamic State group (ISIS). Its violent campaign in western Africa has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions of people in Nigeria.

The group, however, has been facing a series of setbacks with the government forces being able to take back vast tracts of lands previously held by Boko Haram. In August this year, ISIS announced that the Nigerian group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, would be replaced by former spokesman Musab al-Bernawi, which did not go down well with Shekau, who declared it a “coup” attempt.