Nigeria Ready To Talk To Boko Haram Rebels

Nigeria is ready to talk to Islamist militants Boko Haram for the release of more than 200 abducted schoolgirls, a minister has told the BBC.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said on Monday that captured girls who had not converted to Islam could be swapped for jailed fighters.

Special Duties Minister Tanimu Turaki said that if Shekau was sincere, he should send representatives for talks.

Boko Haram has killed thousands of people since 2009 and destabilised parts of north-east Nigeria, the country with Africa’s largest population and biggest economy.

The abductions have triggered a worldwide social media campaign under the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, and prompted the United States, Britain, France and Israel to offer help or send experts to Nigeria. US surveillance aircraft were flying over remote areas of the north-east on Tuesday.

The video showed more than 110 girls sitting on the ground in a rural location, the first time they have been seen in captivity.

Though at least some of them are Christian, and Shekau described them as ‘infidels’, they were wearing full Islamic veils and singing and chanting Muslim prayers.

It was not clear when or where the video was filmed or whether Shekau, who sat in front of a green backdrop holding an AK-47 during part of the video, was in the same location as the girls.

Those shown were among 276 abducted on April 14 from a secondary school in the village of Chibok, Borno state, in a sparsely populated region near the borders with Cameroon, Niger and Chad. Some escaped but about 200 are still missing. The group initially threatened to sell them into slavery.

Jonathan returned to Abuja on Tuesday from the Congo Republic, where he held talks with President Denis Sassou ahead of a regional summit in Paris on Saturday.

He asked parliament on Tuesday for a six-month extension of a state of emergency in the northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe due to persistent attacks by Boko Haram. The emergency was declared last May and extended in November.

Yobe state Governor Ibrahim Gaidam rejected the proposal on the grounds that local people had suffered under the emergency and this harmed the government’s counter-insurgency strategy.

After being accused of a sluggish response to the kidnapping, the government has sent thousands of troops to the region, while the United States and Britain also have teams on the ground to help with the search.

The US State Department said Washington had sent in military, law-enforcement and development experts.

“We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets over Nigeria with the government’s permission,” a US official said.

Britain’s minister for Africa Mark Simmonds would travel to the Nigerian capital on Wednesday for talks on further assistance, the Foreign Office in London said.

Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima said 77 of the girls in the video had been identified by parents, fellow students and girls who escaped the abductions.

“The video got parents apprehensive again after watching it, but the various steps taken by the governments and the coming of the foreign troops is boosting our spirit,” said Dumoma Mpura, a leader at the girls’ boarding school.

Agencies/Canadajournal