The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– Broken-down vehicle –
A student who escaped Monday’s attack said some of her classmates had jumped over a perimeter wall at the sound of gunfire, and got into vehicles parked nearby.
It was thought the vehicles were then taken by the Islamist militants.
A senior military source in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, told AFP the girls from Dapchi were “found… on the border between Yobe and Borno”.
“The girls were abandoned with their vehicle. It had broken down and the terrorists panicked because they were under siege by pursuing soldiers,” he added.
“The fear is that some of the other girls may have been taken along by the terrorists because the girls were not in a single vehicle.
“Only those in the broken down vehicle were lucky.”
– Security issue –
The attack in Dapchi will again raise questions about the government’s grip on security in remote northeast Nigeria, after nearly nine years of fighting and at least 20,000 deaths.
President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015 on a promise to defeat the Islamic State group affiliate and has repeatedly maintained they are now a spent force.
But civilians — especially those displaced by the conflict — remain vulnerable to suicide attacks and hit-and-run raids.
The Dapchi attack also calls into question how far pledges to improve security at schools have been implemented nearly four years after Chibok.
The Chibok abduction in April 2014 brought sustained international attention to the insurgency for the first time, largely via the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.
A total of 276 girls were seized; 57 escaped in the immediate aftermath; and since May last year, 107 have either escaped or been released as part of a government-brokered deal.
Security analysts suggested government ransom payments to secure the release of the Chibok girls could have given the under-pressure group an incentive for financing.
