The Nigerian government has denied reports claiming the release of another set of 21 Chibok school girls abducted by Boko Haram.
Reports had claimed that the girls, who were kidnapped in April 2014, had been transported to Yola, Adamawa State, after their release on Thursday.
Presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu denied that more girls had been released.
“No new girls have been released,” Shehu tweeted.
“To my friends spreading the news of a further release of Chibok Girls, we are not there yet. But, by God’s grace, they will be. Happy Christmas, everyone.”
Shehu said the 21 girls reported Thursday were those released in October. He said they were being escorted by security to Yola on their way home to celebrate the Christmas with their families.
“Today, the DSS took the 21 Girls already secured to Yola, Adamawa State on their way home to celebrate the Christmas with their families.
“The negotiations are ongoing and the Department of State Service, DSS is full of optimism that they will be successful,” he wrote.
More than 200 girls were seized from their school in April 2014 in Chibok in Borno state, where Boko Haram has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state, killing thousands and displacing more than 2 million people.
Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children but the abduction of the Chibok girls – some 200 of whom are still missing – prompted outrage worldwide and their plight was publicised using a Twitter hashtag, #bringbackourgirls.
The first of the Chibok girls to be released by Boko Haram, Amina Ali, was freed in May. Ali has since been held in a house in Abuja for what the state has called a “restoration process”. She said in August that she “just wanted to go home”.
Boko Haram controlled a swathe of land around the size of Belgium at the start of 2015, but Nigeria’s army has recaptured most of the territory.
The group still stages suicide bombings in the northeast, as well as in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.
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