More than 100 school girls abducted last month by Islamist militants from the town of Dapchi have been released.
Photo: AFP
The children told authorities five girls had died and one, the only Christian in the group, was still in captivity.
It was later reported the girls were being flown to meet President Muhammadu Buhari in the capital, Abuja.
One of the freed girls, in a phone conversation with a relative, said five had been crushed to death as they were herded into vehicles.
The girl said she and the others were taken into the bush, to an "enclosed place".
One parent, Kundili Bukar, told the BBC the militants had driven into the town in a motorcade in the early hours of Wednesday morning and surrendered the girls to the community.
Government officials indicated their relief. The government had been strongly criticised after the abduction on 19 February, amid reports that the military had pulled out of Dapchi the day before.
Nigeria had already suffered the kidnapping, when 276 girls were snatched from a school in April 2014. More than 100 are still missing.
Among those to witness the release of the Dapchi girls were some of the Chibok parents, who had gone to the town to console its residents.
"Our visit became something else," one of the Chibok mothers told Reuters news agency, adding that the scenes of reunion made her weep for the fate of her own daughter.
And while many parents celebrated, the father of one girl said she was being kept by the militants - thought to be from the Boko Haram group - because she refused to convert from Christianity to Islam. In a radio interview he said he was happy that she had not renounced her faith.
Nigeria's Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told Reuters that "no ransom was paid".
Mr Lai Mohammed said the girls were taken to hospital in Dapchi, and they would be quarantined and offered psychological counselling before going back to school.
- BBC
