5/19/16 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has confirmed the rescue of Amina Ali Nkeki, one of the Chibok girls Boko Haram gunmen abducted in April 2014 from a government girls school in Chibok, Nigeria. Chibok community members have corroborated the news.

Ground sources told ICC that Amina had strayed away from where she was held captive by Boko Haram in search of dried firewood for cooking. Members of a vigilante group, the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF), spotted her near the edge of the Sambisa Forest, the location analysts believe holds the final Boko Haram hideouts.

Amina’s rescuers handed her over to the military, who invited her mother to meet her at the army base in Damboa, Borno State.

Witnesses tell ICC that the reunion was “very emotional and exhilarating as the mother embraced Amina and wept profusely, overwhelmed with joy for seeing her daughter again.”

Amina is currently in military custody.

“She is the daughter of my neighbor who has died. I taught her in the elementary school,” Yakubu Nkeki, chairman of the Chibok Parents Forum, told ICC.

One Found Two Years Later

Amina Ali went missing on April 14, 2014, when Boko Haram gunmen stormed a government school in Chibok Local Government Area (LGA), in Borno State, northern Nigeria, and abducted 276 mostly Christian teenage schoolgirls. Shortly after the incident, dozens of girls escaped into the surrounding bush, but more than 200 remain missing more than two years later.

Since 2009, Boko Haram has waged a bloody and relentless insurgency in northern Nigeria, historically targeting Christians for murder, kidnapping, rape and church destruction. Over the past year, Nigerian military successes against the terror group have pushed them to adopt guerrilla tactics, such as suicide bombings against more general, populated targets.

Witnesses regularly report young girls as the perpetrators of such attacks, leading to fears that the Islamists are employing some of the Chibok girls for these deadly missions.

Amina’s Rescue Inspires Hope

Today’s news encourages aggrieved parents praying for the return of their daughters.

Last month, CNN released a video establishing “proof of life” for 15 of the missing girls identified by parents. However, the date and location of where the video was filmed proved difficult to determine.

The CNN report represented yet another twist in the torturous rollercoaster of expectation and pain through which hundreds of heartbroken parents have lived for the past two years. Since the abduction, at least 18 parents have died from heart-related illnesses linked to stress about the tragedy.

However, Amina’s discovery offers welcomed hope while hundreds of other parents wait in agony.

“This is great news and raises hope for the rescue of the remaining abducted girls,” ICC’s Nigeria staffer said.

For the past two years, analysts and politicians have wrangled over whether finding any of the girls was even possible. Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau once boasted that he would sell each one of them as brides to fighters.

While most observers speculate that the girls have dispersed across West Africa, Amina’s return provides a glimmer of relief amidst parents’ mounting pain, wondering if they will ever see their daughters again.

“We at ICC celebrate and are overjoyed that Amina has been confirmed rescued. This wonderful news truly represents an answer to prayer for Chibok parents and others around the globe who have hoped for two years that the girls would be returned. While we thank God today, 218 families continue to wait and wonder. ICC calls everyone concerned to continue to pray fervently that more girls like Amina would turn up. What an inspirational scene the reunion must have been when long-lost Amina reunited with her mother,” said ICC’s regional manager for Africa, Troy Augustine.