After securing the release of 21 of the kidnapped “Chibok girls” last week, Nigeria’s government brought them to the nation’s capital, Abuja, for a major photo opportunity: a reunion with their parents.

The government has been heavily criticized for its failure to secure the release of all the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in the small northeastern town of Chibok in 2014. An estimated 197 remain in the hands of the militant group, which controls swaths of northeastern Nigeria and pledges allegiance to the Islamic State. At least 14 of the girls have died, and many have become pregnant after being raped by their captors.

But the negotiations that led to the release of the 21 girls has provided the government a rare opportunity to boast at a time when millions of Nigerians are facing starvation in the northeast and the naira has tumbled worse than any other major international currency this year.

Image: Olamikan Gbemiga, AP.