KANO, Nigeria: Jihadist group Boko Haram has released 13 hostages, including a group of oil explorers and policewomen, that it held captive for more than half a year, the Nigerian presidency said on Saturday (Sunday in Manila). The three oil explorers are lecturers from Maiduguri university, in northern Borno state, who were kidnapped while searching for oil in July last year. Their exploration team was ambushed by Boko Haram in an attack that killed at least 69 people, one of the bloodiest assaults of 2017. A group of 10 women were also released, including police officers and civil servants, who were kidnapped near Maiduguri in June. Police initially denied the kidnapping until Boko Haram released a video weeks later showing the woman pleading for their freedom.

Source: Manila Times February 11, 2018 15:56 UTC