Despite concerns about stigma, Nigerian state identities some girls who escaped abduction

Nigeria President, Goodluck Jonathan, speaks during the World economic forum on Africa in Abuja, Nigeria, Thursday, May 8, 2014. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) (The Associated Press)

South Africans protest in solidarity against the abduction three weeks ago of hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria by the Muslim extremist group Boko Haram and what protesters said was the failure of the Nigerian government and international community to rescue them, during a march to the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa Thursday, May 8, 2014. The kidnapping has ignited a viral social media campaign that has brought renewed attention to Boko Haram's campaign of violence, and protests around the world. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (The Associated Press)

BAUCHI, Nigeria – The government of a Nigerian state besieged by Islamic militants has identified 53 girls who have since escaped abduction, a controversial move because the girls could face stigma.

Some 276 girls remain missing, and U.S. officials and agents are arriving in Nigeria to help the government rescue them.

Boko Haram abducted more than 300 girls from a school in Chibok last month.

The government of Borno state said in a statement received Friday that the 53 girls it identified by name include those who fled the day they were kidnapped and those who escaped from Boko Haram camps days later.

Chibok residents are staging a street protest Friday to press Borno's government to do more to find the missing girls.