First abducted Chibok girl found

Army official Sani Usman said the missing girl was found on Tuesday in Baale village near Damboa, a few kilometers away from where she was abducted two years ago.

"This is to confirm that one of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls...was among rescued persons by our troops," Usman told reporters.

The girl, whom news agencies referred to as Amina Ali or Falmata Mbalala, was found by a vigilante group who handed her over to the military, Allen Manasseh, a Chibok community spokesman said. Her parents as well as the Chibok school's vice president, identified her.

Yakubu Nkeki, head of the Abducted Chibok Girls Parents' group, also confirmed her name, saying she was 17 when she was abducted. "She's the daughter of my neighbour," Nkeki added, "They brought her to my house."

Lawan Zannah, secretary of the association of parents of missing Chibok girls, said the teenager carrying a baby at the time of her discovery.

According to Borno state governor Kashim Shettima, the young girl is on her way to the state capital, Maiduguri.

#BringBackOurGirls

Islamist fighters kidnapped 276 girls from their secondary school in northeastern Nigeria two years ago. While about 50 of the girls managed to escape within hours of the abduction, until Wednesday, nearly two years had gone by without any word of the fate of the 219 remaining Chibok schoolgirls.

The kidnapping prompted international outrage and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign on social media.

Boko Haram has claimed 17,000 lives and displaced at least 2.6 million people in Nigeria and neighboring countries in 2009, after the group launched an insurgency aimed to create an Islamic state in the region.

A five-nation African force has pushed back Boko Haram in some areas, but the group still holds territory and regularly conducts devastating attacks.

ksb/bw (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)