Boko Haram Releases 49 Women Kidnapped in Nigeria

Forty-nine women were released on Friday after being kidnapped by Boko Haram earlier this week near the town of Maiduguri in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria, following a government official's payment of a ransom for their release. A local leader, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to Reuters, stated that the militants had initially demanded a ransom of three million naira (approximately $3,891.86), but the women, most of whom were poor farmers, were released after a government official negotiated and paid one million naira to the group. In late July, militants beheaded at least ten farmers in Borno State, a stronghold of the insurgency and a focal point of the 14-year-long war on terrorism in Nigeria, which has spread to neighboring Chad, Niger, and Cameroon.