Nearly all of the 129 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted (http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/16/world/africa/nigeria-girls-abducted/index.html) earlier this week by the Islamist group Boko Haram "have been freed" but eight remain missing, the Nigerian military says.
The military is conducting a search-and-rescue operation for the remaining girls and one of the alleged kidnappers has been apprehended. Neither the girls' condition nor the reason for their release were immediately clear, CNN reports.
The girls were abducted Monday (http://time.com/65505/kidnapped-nigerian-schoolgirls-said-to-be-taken-to-islamist-stronghold/) night from their dormitories at their school in northeastern Nigeria, where the militant Islamist group has been waging a campaign of violence and terror for years. After a gun battle with authorities, militants loaded the girls onto busses and drove them away in a caravan.
[CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/16/world/africa/nigeria-girls-abducted/index.html)](http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=time.com&blog=1359921&post=65688&subd=timedotcom&ref=&feed=1)