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Nigeria abductions: Parents say girls still missing

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The school is located not far from where the Islamist militant group Boko Haram has been carrying out attacks, as the BBCs Will Ross reports
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Nigeria under attack

    I risked my life
    Escape from terror
    Military divisions
    Terror badge of honour?


Mystery surrounds the fate of more than 100 teenage girls who were abducted from a school in the remote north-east of Nigeria.

The military says all but eight of the 129 girls have escaped, but parents of the girls say many are still missing.

It is thought Islamist militant group Boko Haram took the girls to forested areas near the Cameroonian border.

The group is waging a bloody campaign for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
Also on Wednesday, 18 people were killed in an attack in the Gwoza district of north-eastern Nigeria, local officials told the AP news agency.
Soldiers overpowered

The BBCs correspondent in Lagos, Will Ross, says the Nigerian militarys statement that most of the girls had escaped their captors contrasts sharply with other information available to the BBC, including the claims of parents of pupils at the school. They insist "many" of their children are still missing.

The raid on the boarding school is a great source of embarrassment for the Nigerian authorities who say their military campaign against the militants is succeeding, he adds.