Freed Nigerian captives tell of harrowing experiences


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YOLA, Nigeria (AP) — Some of the girls and women rescued by the Nigerian military are telling tragic stories about their escape from captivity.

They say Boko Haram (BOH'-koh hah-RAHM') fighters stoned some of the captives to death as Nigeria's military approached to rescue the women. Others survived the stoning.

Three were blown up by a land mine as they walked to freedom. And several were accidentally crushed to death by a Nigerian military vehicle.

The survivors who spoke to The Associated Press are among 61 women and 214 children, almost all girls, who have been taken to a refugee camp in northeastern Nigeria, where they are receiving food and medical attention. Health workers put critically malnourished babies on intravenous drips. Twenty-one girls and women with bullet wounds and fractured limbs were taken to a hospital.

Nigeria's military said it has freed nearly 700 Boko Haram captives in the past week.

%@AP Links

031-a-14-(Charles Otegbade, director of Search and Rescue, National Emergency Management Agency, in AP interview Saturday)-"majority are children (2nd reference)"-The National Emergency Management Agency Director of Search and Rescue (Charles Otegbade) says authorities are questioning those rescued from Boko Haram extremists. (3 May 2015)

<<CUT *031 (05/03/15)££ 00:14 "majority are children (2nd reference)"

032-r-11-(sound of rescued women and children, arriving at refugee camp Saturday)--Sound of rescued women and children arriving at a refugee camp. (3 May 2015)

<<CUT *032 (05/03/15)££ 00:11

APPHOTO GFX5774: Map locates the Sambisa Forest in Nigeria, where hundreds of girls were rescued; 1c x 3 inches; 46.5 mm x 76 mm; (3 May 2015)

<<APPHOTO GFX5774 (05/03/15)££

APPHOTO XSA103: A doctor attends to a Malnourished child as women and children rescued by Nigerian soldiers wait to receive treatment at a refugee camp in Yola, Nigeria Sunday, May 3, 2015, after being rescued from captivity by Boko Haram fighters. Their faces were gaunt with signs of malnutrition but the girls are alive and free, among a group of 275 children and women rescued by the Nigerian military, and the first to arrive at a refugee camp Saturday after a three-day journey to safety. They came from the Sambisa Forest, thought to be the last stronghold of the Islamic extremists, where the Nigerian military said it has rescued more than 677 girls and women and destroyed more than a dozen insurgent camps in the past week. ( AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) (3 May 2015)

<<APPHOTO XSA103 (05/03/15)££

APPHOTO XSA105: Doctors attends to a sick child rescued by Nigerian soldiers from Boko Haram extremists at a refugee camp in Yola, Nigeria Sunday, May 3, 2015, after being rescued from captivity by Boko Haram fighters. Their faces were gaunt with signs of malnutrition but the girls are alive and free, among a group of 275 children and women rescued by the Nigerian military, and the first to arrive at a refugee camp Saturday after a three-day journey to safety. They came from the Sambisa Forest, thought to be the last stronghold of the Islamic extremists, where the Nigerian military said it has rescued more than 677 girls and women and destroyed more than a dozen insurgent camps in the past week. ( AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) (3 May 2015)

<<APPHOTO XSA105 (05/03/15)££

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