Boko Haram negotiates ceasefire, Chibok girls release in S’Arabia

Islamist militant group Boko Haram is in talks with the
federal government to release more than 200 girls abducted
six months ago and negotiate a ceasefire to a deadly
insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.
An adviser to 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. Riyadh is not involved in the
negotiations.
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.
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.




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