Nigeria Dapchi abductions: Timeline of events

Nearly all of the 110 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in the town of Dapchi last month have been freed, the government says. Officials said 104 girls were reunited with their families after being brought back to the town.

Here is an interactive timeline of key events in the abduction, which comes nearly four years after the kidnapping of 276 girls from their school in Chibok, also in north-eastern Nigeria.

App users click image

2018

  • 19 February

    Suspected Boko Haram militants attack a public secondary school for girls in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Dapchi in Yobe state.

  • 20 February

    Nigerian government confirms 110 girls missing.

  • 21 February

    Yobe state government announces rescue of some of the girls from "terrorists who abducted them" and says they are with the army.

    Read more here

  • 22 February

    The Yobe state government retracts the statement and apologises for misleading the public, saying: "No girl was rescued".

    Read more here

  • 23 February

    President Muhammadu Buhari calls the abduction of the schoolgirls in Dapchi a "national disaster".

    Read more here

  • 25 February

    Nigerian Air Force announces deployment of military aircraft and additional personnel for search and rescue mission.

  • 26 February

    Nigerian army denies claims by Yobe State Governor that soldiers were removed from Dapchi before the girls' abduction. The army then admits it redeployed soldiers away from the town, saying the area was "relatively secure".

    Read more here

  • 27 February

    Federal government launches investigation into the circumstances leading to abduction and releases full details of the 110 missing schoolgirls.

    Read more here

  • 28 February

    UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says he "strongly condemns the abduction and attack".

  • 2 March

    Local human rights activist Aisha Wakil, known as "Mama Boko Haram" because she has known some of the militants since they were children, is quoted in reports saying that the Barnawi faction of Boko Haram confirmed to her that it was holding the girls.

  • 9 March

    Women hold a protest in the capital Abuja, three weeks after the girls' abduction.

  • 12 March

    President Muhammadu Buhari announces plan to negotiate the girls' release, rather than use military force.

  • 14 March

    President Buhari makes his first visit to Dapchi, assuring parents of the missing schoolgirls that the government will secure the girls' rescue.

  • 20 March

    Amnesty International claims Nigerian army ignored repeated warnings of an attack on Dapchi town, hours before militants abducted the girls.

    Read more here

  • 21 March

    Nigerian government announces that 104 of the 110 abducted schoolgirls have been freed.

    Read more here

Credits: Development by Olawale Malomo. Design by Olaniyi Adebimpe. Research by Nkechi Ogbonna, Princess Abumere and Emmanuelle Lhoni.

Photo Credits: Aminu Abubakar/AFP/Getty Images, Drew Angerer/Getty Images, Isaac Linus Abrak, Presidency Nigeria, Pulse Nigeria.

More on this story