Military Rescues Fresh Batch of 234 Boko Haram Victims"

Military Rescues Fresh Batch of 234 Boko Haram Victims"
The Nigerian military in their ongoing onslaught against the Boko Haram terrorists on Friday rescued 234 more victims, bringing the total of those rescued in the last four days to 687 women and children.
The military had earlier rescued an initial 293 and 160 persons respectively before the further success.
This is as the 293 women and children rescued earlier in the week were reportedly on their way to Yola, the Adamawa State capital for rehabilitation .

The Director of Defence Information (DDI), Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade confirmed this in a statement yesterday, adding that the freed women and children had been evacuated to join others at the place of ongoing screening.

According to Olukolade, this number represented an update on the 160 women and children reported to have been freed in addition to the 293 women and girls rescueds earlier this week.
"This set in addition to the previous individuals earlier rescued during the ongoing operation in the area", he noted.

The Defence Spokesman assured that "The assault on the forest is continuing from various fronts and efforts were concentrated on rescuing hostages of civilians and destroying all terrorists’ camps and facilities in the forest".
Meanwhile, identities of the freed hostages are yet to be ascertained as the military continued with their profiling for further intelligence gathering.
It could be recalled that Olukolade had during a joint press conference with the Spokespersons of the Army, Navy and Air Force at Defence Headquarters (DHQ) on Thursday, insisted that the military were yet to conclude on the identity and profiling of the over 400 women and girls rescued from the notorious Sambisa forest till date.

According to him, what was uppermost in the mind of the military was the profiling of the freed hostages and to finish the job of liberating the entire Sambisa forest from the siege of Boko Haram terrorists.
“The true identity of some of the rescued women and girls are yet to be ascertained. At the moment, what is upper most and of priority is their movement to a conducive place where they are now undergoing thorough profiling to verify their true identity, where they come from, how they found themselves in the forest, etc”, he said.

Additionally, he noted, numbers of persons were still being recovered from the forest. Until such comprehensive profiling was done, nobody could confirm whether they were among the Chibok girls or not.
A source close to the military formations in Yola revealed to THISDAY that the victims had left Maiduguri , the Borno State capital on Friday under military tight security to arrive Yola on the same day.
The source said the military was planning to hand over the victims to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for proper care and rehabilitation following their experience in the hands of the insurgents.
Our source noted that a rehabilitation centre had already been designated for them in Yola, with a team of experts to attend to their psychological and medical needs so as bring them back to normal life.
"Some of them are mentally unstable because of the maltreatment in the hands of Boko Haram and unfavourable environment they were living before they were rescued by the military" he said
The source who spoke to us on telephone explained that because of security reasons and not to attract attentions from the general public the military may want the victims to arrive Yola in the night.
However an official of NEMA confirmed the incident but said he had not taken permission from his boss, so he could not speak regarding the matter. He said it was true that the military were trying to hand over the first batch of the 293 victims of the Boko Haram insurgents to NEMA for rehabilitation in Yola.
While he pleaded for anonymity, he said the victims had passed Mubi town in Adamawa State at the time he called around 4:30 pm yesterday, adding they may want to arrive in the night to attract less attention from the public