At least 13 schoolgirls are still missing after Boko Haram attacked a village in Nigeria and reportedly kidnapped around 100 students.
The militant group is believed to have attacked a boarding school in northeastern Dapchi on Monday – causing teachers and students to flee into the nearby bush.
At least 91 people were unaccounted for after a roll-call at their school on Tuesday morning and parents reported seeing the girls being taken away in trucks.
According to Reuters, the army found two of the girls dead although their cause of death is not yet clear.
Police and state officials, who often downplay reports of kidnappings, said that there was no evidence that the girls had been abducted.
But the government later said in a statement that the military had rescued some of the students from Boko Haram.
"Everybody is celebrating their coming with songs and praises to God almighty," said Babagana Umar, one of the parents whose daughter had disappeared. “The only sad news is that two girls were dead and no explanation."
The Boko Haram militants arrived in Dapchi on Monday evening in trucks, some mounted with heavy guns and painted in military camouflage, witnesses told Reuters.
They went directly to the school, shooting sporadically, sending students and teachers fleeing, the witnesses said, adding that some people had returned to Dapchi after spending the night hiding in the bush.
Parents and witnesses who told Reuters of the missing students spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they had been warned by Nigerian security and government officials not to disclose the disappearance.
The country is still haunted by Boko Haram's abduction of more than 270 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in 2014.
That case drew global attention to the nine-year insurgency, which has sparked what the United Nations has called one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Of about 270 girls abducted from their school in Chibok in April 2014, about 60 escaped soon afterwards and others have since been released after mediation. Around 100 are still believed to be in captivity.
