Boko Haram insurgents have offered to free
more than 200 young women and girls kidnapped from a boarding school in the town
of Chibok, Borno State, in exchange for the release of its fighters held by the
government, a human rights activist has told The Associated Press (AP).
The activist said Boko Haram’s current
offer is limited to the girls from the school in northeastern Nigeria whose
mass abduction in April 2014 ignited worldwide outrage and a campaign to “Bring
Back Our Girls” that stretched to the White House, US, and other capitals
across the world.
The new initiative reopens an offer made
last year to the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan to release
the 219 students in exchange for 16 Boko Haram detainees, the activist said. He
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to
reporters on this sensitive issue.
Fred Eno, an apolitical Nigerian who has
been negotiating with Boko Haram for more than a year, told the AP that
“another window of opportunity opened” in the last few days, though he could
not discuss details.
He said the recent slew of Boko Haram
bloodletting – some 350 people killed in the past nine days – is consistent
with past intensifying of violence as the militants seek a stronger negotiating
position.
Presidential adviser Femi Adesina said on
Saturday that Nigeria’s government “will not be averse” to talks with Boko
Haram.
“Most wars, however furious or vicious,
often end around the negotiation table,” he had said.
Eno said the five-week-old administration
of President Muhammadu Buhari offers “a clean slate” to bring the militants
back to negotiations that had become poisoned by the different security
agencies and their advice to former president Jonathan.
Two months of talks last year led
government representatives and Eno to travel in September to a northeastern
town where the prisoner exchange was to take place, only to be stymied by the
Department for State Services (DSS), Nigeria’s intelligence agency, the
activist said.
At the last minute then, the agency said it
was holding only four of the militants sought by Boko Haram, the activist said.
It is not known how many Boko Haram
suspects are detained by Nigeria’s intelligence agency, whose chief Buhari
fired last week.
Thousands of suspects have died in custody,
and some detainees wanted by Boko Haram may be among them.
Amnesty
International alleges that 8,000 detainees have died in military custody – some
have been shot, some have died from untreated injuries due to torture, and some
have died from starvation and other harsh treatment.
In May, about 300 women, girls and children
being held captive by Boko Haram were rescued by Nigeria’s military, but none
were from Chibok.
It is believed that the militants view the Chibok girls as a
last-resort bargaining chip.
In that infamous abduction, 274 mostly
Christian girls preparing to write science exams were seized from the school by
Islamic militants in the early hours of April 15, 2014. Dozens escaped on their
own in the first few days, but 219 remain missing.
Some are feared killed by the captors for
failing to cooperate and others may have died from snake bites and other
causes. At least three were reported to have died – one from dysentery, one
from malaria and one from a snake bite.
Boko Haram has not shown them since a May
2014 video in which its leader, Abubakar Shekau, warned: “You won’t see the
girls again unless you release our brothers you have captured.”
Culled from Leadship
0 comments:
Post a Comment