Since the uprising of the Boko Haram militant group began in northern Nigeria in 2009, more than 30,000 people have been killed and about two million forced to flee their homes. In December, the jihadist group purported to be behind the kidnapping of 300 young boys in an armed attack on a school. The boys' relatively quick release, while undoubtedly still a terrifying ordeal, was a marked difference and a much happier ending to those of other similar attacks, most notably that on the 270 schoolgirls taken from the town of Chibok in 2014. Despite the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign, in almost seven years only about half of those captured have been released or managed to escape; dozens have appeared in propaganda videos by the militants - either pleading for their rescue or pledging allegiance to the group - and some have died from illness, in childbirth or military air strikes, according to captives who have been freed.
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