Four girls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants last month have escaped their captors, the education commissioner for Nigeria's Borno state told reporters on Wednesday, leaving 219 still missing.
The girls were taking exams at a secondary school in the northeastern village of Chibok on April 14 when Boko Haram surrounded it, loaded 276 of the girls onto trucks and carted them off, according to Nigerian officials. Fifty-three escaped shortly afterward.
Education commissioner Musa Inuwa declined to give further details of the escape of the four girls Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Chief of Defense Staff Air Marshal Alex Badeh said the military knew where the girls were, but could not reveal their location and has ruled out a rescue by force. Nigerian officials said they think a military raid runs too high a risk that the girls would be killed by their captors.
Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo hosted talks last weekend with some of the armed group's family members and intermediaries to negotiate the girls' return.
An international rescue operation to find the girls has ramped up following a global outcry to rescue them. The United Nations Al-Qaeda Sanctions committee blacklisted and imposed sanctions on Boko Haram last week, more than a month after the girls were abducted.
Activists of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign continue to protest the Nigerian army’s inability to curtail Boko Haram at rallies in Nigerian cities and across the world, including Washington, D.C., London, Johannesburg and New York.
But some groups in Nigeria have turned hostile toward the activists, accusing them of sensationalizing the kidnapping to embarrass Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.
Scores of young men armed with bottles and stones on Wednesday attacked female protesters in Abuja, AFP reported.
"We were attacked by a group of hooligans," said Hadiza Bala Usman, a leader of the Bring Back Our Girls movement. "Some of them attacked our heads with chairs."
She said some of the men were carrying posters in support of Jonathan. There was no immediate evidence connecting them to the Nigerian leader or the ruling party.
Usman also accused the police of watching the violence unfold but doing nothing.
"We are women. How could the police just watch and do nothing?" she said. "They came to tell us that we should move away, because more hooligans were coming. How can a Nigerian policeman tell us they cannot protect us?
"We refuse to be intimidated," she said, insisting that despite the violence, the rallies would continue.
Al Jazeera and wire services
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