Emotions as 82 Chibok girls reunite with parents

Emotional scenes, tears of joy, hugging,  Saturday, dominated the reunion of the recently released 82 kidnapped Chibok girls with their parents.

At the reunion held in  Abuja, fathers gripped their daughters in tight embrace, while mothers shrieked with joy, wiping away tears streaming from their eyes. In one scene, captured by the cameras, both the parents, along with one of the girls, burst out in tears of joy.

They hadn’t seen each other since  14 April 2014, when Boko Haram militants  snatched  270 schoolgirls from their dormitories in northeast Nigeria.

“I’m feeling very happy, I was dancing with her, she’s very happy,” said Yakubu Nkeki, whose niece Maimuna — who he had raised as his own child — was among the 82 released.

“Everyone was dancing today, even the old ones, everyone was dancing,” Nkeki told AFP.

“All of us had lost hope, we thought the girls would not be returned.”

Nkeki, who represents the Chibok parents, said that they would attend a church service with the girls on Sunday, before returning home early next week.

In the meantime the girls would stay in a government facility in Abuja where they are receiving therapy and vocational training.

Nigeria’s minister for women  affairs, Aisha Alhassan has said that the government’s goal is to have all the rescued Chibok girls back in school by September.

The group of 82 girls was released in May in exchange for five Boko Haram commanders following months of negotiations brokered by the Swiss government and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Twenty-one of their classmates were freed in October last year, while three others had previously been found or escaped.

The Federal government has said it is still in talks to release the remaining 113 girls in captivity.

In a statement the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,said the group of 82 girls had  also been reunited with 24 others, who were rescued by the Federal Government last year.