Hundreds of Nigerian girls abducted last week from a boarding school in the country’s northwest have been returned to their families amid chaos as security forces opened fire on a gathering outside the school where the reunions were held Wednesday.
One person died and two were injured in the mayhem, according to local media reports. The forces opened fire after stones were thrown at Government officials, apparently in frustration at the drawn-out procedure, said the reports.
Anxious and angry parents who were reunited with the girls after six days of waiting grabbed their daughters and left after shots rang out. Many were worried about traveling on the area’s dangerous roads at night.
The girls, aged 10 and up, had been abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School in Jangebe in Nigeria’s northwest Zamfara state and were released Tuesday after negotiations. Zamfara Gov. Bello Matawalle said that 279 girls had been freed.
Upon their release, the girls were brought to the government’s provincial offices, Government House, in Gusau for presentation, before being medically examined and reunited with their families.
