Cameroon said that schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants were not among a group of 900 hostages liberated by its army.
The announcement comes as hopes were raised following the release of some hostages on Dec.4 in Cameroon.
“The people that were freed are just villagers, the schoolgirls who are missing are not amongst the group,” Information Minister Issa Bakari told newsmen by telephone.
The freed hostages were driven in crowded open-topped trucks to the town of Maroua and given food and water by regional officials.
It would be recalled that Boko Haram seized about 200 schoolgirls in April 2014, from their dormitories in the town of Chibok, the kidnapping stirred international outrage.
Efforts to track them down have proved fruitless, in part because they have probably been split up into small groups and settled with families in villages across a wider area of terrain, according to analysts.
Cameroon is part of an 8,700-strong task force including troops from Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Benin combating Boko Haram(Reuters/NAN)
