The 82 Chibok schoolgirls who were recently released after more than three years of Boko Haram captivity reunited with their families Saturday in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.
It was an emotional reunion, filled with crying, singing and dancing. “Today I thank God, my daughter is alive,” Yahi Bulata told NPR. He was seeing his daughter, Comfort, for the first time since she was captured.
The 276 schoolgirls were abducted from their dorms in the northeastern town of Chibok by Boko Haram in April 2014. The 82 recently freed abductees were part of an exchange of five commanders brokered by the Nigerian government. There are still 113 girls in captivity.
“Our joy is never complete until we see the complete 113, because one Chibok girl matters to all Chibok people,” a parent of one of the freed schoolgirls, Yahi Bwata, told the Associated Press.
The freed girls, many of them now women or mothers, have been in government care in the capital as part of a nine-month reintegration program.