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Abducted Nigerian Schoolgirls Reunited with Parents


Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari meets with some of the newly released Dapchi schoolgirls in Abuja, Nigeria, March 23, 2018.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari meets with some of the newly released Dapchi schoolgirls in Abuja, Nigeria, March 23, 2018.

More than 100 Nigerian girls recently released by the extremist group Boko Haram have been reunited with their parents.

The jihadist group abducted the girls from the town of Dapchi in February.

After their release Wednesday and a brief emotional meeting with their parents, the schoolgirls spent three days in the national capital Abuja, where they met with President Muhammadu Buhari.

The girls were among 111 seized last month, of whom five died during the ordeal. One girl, Leah Sharibu, still remains in the hands of the kidnappers because she is a Christian and refused to convert to Islam.

Buhari on Friday pledged to do "everything in our power" to obtain Leah's freedom.

Buhari's administration had been under pressure to resolve the Dapchi abduction, which revived painful memories of the 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from the town of Chibok.

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan was criticized for his handling of the abductions from a Chibok school, some 275 kilometers southeast of Dapchi.

More than half of those girls have been returned, but 100 remain missing.

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