An adviser to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and a man calling himself the secretary-general of Boko Haram told VOA Thursday that discussions are under way in Saudi Arabia, aided by high level officials from Chad and Cameroon.
Boko Haram’s Danladi Ahmadu, who is in Saudi Arabia, said the girls are “in good condition and unharmed.”
Ahmadu would not elaborate on the conditions under which the girls would be freed.
Channels, a Lagos based TV station later reported the Principal Private Secretary to the President, Hassan Tukur, as confirming the negotiation.
Mr. Tukur, said to have spoken with the Voice of America Hausa service, was quoted as saying the Nigerian government “met with Chadian Government officials as well as representatives of the Boko Haram sect in N’Djamena, Chad, in an effort to secure the release of the 219 Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram”.
The report said
“a cease-fire has been achieved while other areas that were discussed are the location and health condition of the girls, those they want to swap with the girls, where Shekau is and more”.
Channels TV says the meeting will continue next week.
On April 14, dozens of Boko Haram fighters stormed a secondary school in the remote northeastern village of Chibok, kidnapping around 270 girls. Fifty-seven managed to escape.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau later threatened to sell the remainder as slave brides, vowing they would not be released until militant prisoners were freed from jail.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has been criticized at home and abroad for his slow response to the kidnapping and for the inability of Nigerian troops to quell the violence by the militants, seen as the biggest security threat to Africa’s top economy and leading energy producer.
MDB
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