nation.com.pk/international/19-Oct-2014/nigeria-to-have-abducted-girls-freed-by-tuesday


ABUJA: Nigeria aims to have secured
the release of 200 girls kidnapped by
Islamist Boko Haram militants by
Tuesday, a senior source at the
presidency told Reuters on Saturday,
although he declined to comment on
where the transfer would take place.

‘I can confirm that FG (the federal
government) is working hard to meet its
own part of the agreement so that the
release of the abductees can by effected
either on Monday or latest Tuesday next
week,’ the source told Reuters by
telephone.

The head of Nigeria’s military, Air Chief
Marshal Alex Badeh, announced on
Friday that authorities had reached a
deal with Boko Haram for a ceasefire
that would enable the release of the
girls, who were kidnapped while taking
exams in a secondary school from the
remote northeastern town of Chibok in
April.

Officials at the presidency and the
military did not immediately respond to
a request for comment. –Reuters

Boko Haram, which conveys messages in
videotaped speeches by a man claiming
to be its leader, Abubakar Shekau, has
also not yet commented on the
ceasefire. Some Nigerians are likely to
greet claims of a ceasefire with
scepticism after five years of violence.

Since the girls’ abduction, Nigeria’s
military has twice claimed to have
rescued some or all of the girls, only to
back-track hours later.

Several rounds of negotiations with
Boko Haram have been attempted in
recent years but they have never
achieved a peace deal, partly because
the group has several different factions.

The group, whose name translates
roughly as ‘Western education is sinful’
has killed thousands of people in its
struggle to carve an Islamic state out of
religiously mixed Nigeria. Moreover,
Suspected Boko Haram militants have
killed several people in two attacks on
Nigerian villages that occurred after a
government announcement of a
ceasefire, security sources and
witnesses said on Saturday.

In the first attack, suspected insurgents
attacked the village of Abadam on
Friday night, killing at least one person
and ransacking homes, while another
attack on the village of Dzur on
Saturday morning left at least eight
people dead.

Nigeria’s armed forces chief, Air Chief
Marshal Alex Badeh, announced on
Friday a deal with Boko Haram for a
ceasefire that would enable the release
of girls whose abduction in the remote
northeastern town of Chibok in April
caused international shock and outrage.