Every May, there’s a party in northeastern Nigeria to celebrate a unique anniversary: the release of more than 100 young women from captivity. In 2014, 276 girls at a boarding school in a village called Chibok were kidnapped from their dorms by the militant group Boko Haram. They became known as the “Chibok girls.” Today, the survivors are supposed to be studying in a college prep program on the campus of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), in the hot, dusty northeastern city of Yola. Instead, they’re back home in their villages under lockdown for coronavirus.

Last year, photographer Benedicte Kurzen and writer Nina Strochlic joined the day-long “Release Day” celebration. In the courtyard of a building that serves as