Nigeria ‘releases 244 Boko Haram members’

The Nigerian authorities have released 244 Boko Haram members from detention.
The Nigerian army says the insurgents have been de-radicalised and prepared to reintergrate with society before being released.

The army commander in charge of fighting the militants in the north-east handed over the people he describes as repentant Boko Haram members to the governor of Borno – one of the states worst affected by Boko Haram’s eight-year deadly insurgency.

They include men, women and children. Critics are sceptical about whether the militants have indeed repented.In October, Nigeria started mass trials and profiling of more than 6,000 Boko Haram suspects – many of them detained for years without charge.

It comes at the same time as Boko Haram released a video in which its leader, Abubakar Shekau, claims to show some of the Chibok girls still in captivity.