Another 234 women and children have been rescued from Boko Haram
militants in Nigeria, the military has announced.
It said the operation took place on
Thursday in the vast Sambisa forest - a militant hideout - in the north-east of
the country.
It was not immediately clear if any
of more than 200 girls abducted from a school in Chibok in April 2014 were
among those freed.
Nearly 300 women and children were
freed by the army earlier this week.
BBC reports:
While the army says they had been captured
by Boko Haram, a local senator says the women and children previously released
may have been residents of the area.
'Destroyed camps'
In a tweet, the Nigerian military
wrote: "FLASH: Another set of 234 women and children were rescued through
the Kawuri and Konduga end of the #Sambisa Forest on Thursday."
It said the freed hostages were
being screened to establish their identities.
The military earlier said it had
destroyed 13 camps belonging to the Islamist insurgents in the Sambisa forest,
which surrounds a reserve in Borno.
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| Image source: BBC |
Thousands have been killed in
northern Nigeria since Boko Haram began its insurgency in 2009 to create an
Islamic state.
In February, Nigeria's military,
backed by troops from neighbouring countries, launched a major offensive
against the Islamist fighters.
It has recaptured much of the territory Boko
Haram had taken in the previous year.
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