Another Chibok Schoolgirl Kidnapped by Boko Haram Is Found

Serah Luka in Damboa, Nigeria, after she became the second abducted girl from the Chibok school to be found this week.

Hours after the president of Nigeria met with a schoolgirl rescued this week after more than two years in Boko Haram captivity, government officials announced Thursday that another of the missing girls had been found.


Soldiers and vigilante forces found the girl, Serah Luka, during an operation Thursday that killed 35 Boko Haram fighters and rescued 97 women and children, according to the military.

Ms. Luka, who the military said was receiving medical attention, had been at the boarding school in the village of Chibok just over two months when fighters raided and kidnapped the nearly 300 girls there during exam week in April 2014.

Earlier Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari whisked Amina Ali, who was found Tuesday roaming a forest laden with Boko Haram fighters, to Abuja, the capital, in a presidential jet. She sat in a plush leather chair in the presidential villa before the country’s dignitaries.

Ms. Ali shook hands with the president, who held her sobbing baby, a 4-month-old girl, Safiya, as he showed mother and child to a crowd of journalists.

Local vigilante fighters found a malnourished Ms. Ali two days earlier as they were scouring the area for Boko Haram militants. She was with the baby and a man claiming to be her husband.

Government officials said the man was really a Boko Haram fighter.

Her rescue was the first since a few dozen of the girls escaped in the days after the kidnapping in Chibok — just 30 miles away from where she was found this week.

Now, 218 girls remain missing, believed to be somewhere in the Sambisa forest where Boko Haram members have been hiding out. On Thursday, Mr. Buhari renewed a pledge to find them all.

“Rest assured that this administration will continue to do all it can to rescue the remaining Chibok girls who are still in Boko Haram captivity,” Mr. Buhari said. “Amina’s rescue gives us new hope and offers a unique opportunity for vital information.”

The abduction of the girls has been a political embarrassment for Mr. Buhari. He took office last year after campaign pledges to find all the girls and stamp out Boko Haram. Neither has happened.

On Thursday, before news of another girl’s being found was made public, officials were quick to credit Mr. Buhari with Ms. Ali’s rescue.

“Sir, what we are celebrating today is your political commitment and support which has given major push to the successes recorded in the fight against terrorism,” said the defense minister, Mansur Muhammad Dan-Ali, who was at the news conference to meet Ms. Ali.

Hadiza Bala Usman, a leader of a group that campaigns for the girls’ release, said Ms. Ali had told her that at least six of her classmates died while being held by Boko Haram, some in childbirth and others in clashes between Boko Haram and the military. Government and military officials could not confirm the account.

Through the years that Boko Haram has been terrorizing Nigeria and its neighboring countries, militants have killed many children in attacks on schools. But the abduction of the girls from Chibok gained worldwide notoriety, motivating a global social media campaign with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

On Thursday, Ms. Ali stepped, crying infant in her arms, from a black S.U.V. as security guards kept back a surging crowd of cameramen. Accompanying her were her mother and brother, a nurse and Ms. Usman, the activist.

Ms. Ali waited in a conference room, her face covered by a black sequined shawl as journalists scrambled to get photos of her and her family. Government officials and relatives occasionally huddled with her, talking in inaudible tones. At one point, Ms. Ali put her head down on the table.
Mr. Buhari eventually emerged to greet her. She removed the shawl from her face and handed her crying infant to him.

“The continuation of Amina’s education, so abruptly disrupted, will definitely be a priority of the federal government,” he said. “Amina must be enabled to go back to school. No girl in Nigeria should be put through the brutality of forced marriage. Every girl has the right to an education and a life choice.”

Mr. Buhari said that Ms. Ali had met with trauma experts and that the Nigerian government would “do everything possible to ensure that the rest of her life takes a completely different course.”

Abuja was just one stop for Ms. Ali. She met with villagers in Chibok, and with officials and aid workers in Maiduguri. Her busy circuit was criticized by Mausi Segun, a Nigeria researcher for Human Rights Watch.

“She’s not had a moment to herself,” she said. “She’s not had time to sit down with her family.”

Binta Ali, Ms. Ali’s mother, said she had almost given up hope that her daughter would be found. She is her 13th child, but most of her children, she said, died before they were 4 years old.

At the news conference, Kashim Shettima, governor of Borno State, where Chibok is, called Ms. Ali “the daughter of the world” and said her rescue was an omen.

“It’s a sign of greater things to come,” Mr. Shettima said.