In early May, the terrorist group Boko Haram freed 82 Nigerian girls who had been held captive after the group kidnapped them in 2014. In early May, the terrorist group Boko Haram freed 82 Nigerian girls who had been held captive after the group kidnapped them in 2014.

According to CNN’s Stephanie Busari and Jay Croft, “the girls, ages 16 to 18, are believed to be among 276 forced from their beds by Boko Haram militants in the middle of the night in April 2014.”Busari and Croft reported that “[the girls] generally appeared to be in good physical condition. One has a broken arm and another has a leg injury.” After meeting the freed girls, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari expressed, “Welcome, our girls; welcome, our sisters. We are very glad that you are back, and every Nigerian today must be forgetting every other hardship and suffering, because this is a very joyous moment.”

The negotiations to free the girls, according to CNN, came in three parts, with the first part calling for the release of 21 of the girls last October. In return, according to Nigerian Senator Shehu Sani, who was part of the negotiating effort, the Nigerian government freed five top Boko Haram commanders. The third part of the plan is for the release of the remaining girls, which is currently being discussed by Boko Haram and the Nigerian Government.

This is an important moment in the fight against Boko Haram’s actions towards young girls. Amnesty International, a nonprofit organization that campaigns for human rights, stated that in 2015 “at least 2,000 women and girls [had] been abducted by Boko Haram since the start of 2014 and many [had] been forced into sexual slavery and trained to fight.”