The mask has been lifted off some of the captives of Boko Haram rescued earlier this week from the insurgents’ last stronghold, Sambisa Forest, Borno State in North-East Nigeria.

The faces of the relieved former captives can be seen in the first batch of photos released by the Nigerian Army. Some of those in the photos released yesterday afternoon by Acting Director of Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, show under-aged mothers as well as malnourished children. In one of the photos a military medical personnel can be seen attending to a girl child. There are also photos of military tanks rumbling inside the formerly dreaded Sambisa Forest.

“As earlier promised, here are some of the photographs of the rescued women and children in Sambisa as well as some of the recoveries made,” Colonel Usman wrote as he uploaded the photos online.

Troops of 7 Division Nigerian Army had on Tuesday rescued 293 women and girls from Sambisa Forest, following it up with the rescue of more captives on Wednesday. “They have been evacuated to a safety zone for further processing,” Col. Usman said.

Addressing the press yesterday at Defence Headquarters, Abuja, Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, disclosed that all those rescued have been moved to a conducive place “where they are now undergoing thorough profiling to verify their true identity, where they come from, how they found themselves in the forest, etc.”

•Photo, courtesy of Nigerian Army, shows some of the women and children rescued from Sambisa Forest.