Boko Haram faction ready to negotiate release of 83 more Chibok girls- Govt

 

The Islamic State-allied faction of Boko Haram is willing to negotiate the release of 83 more of the girls, the president’s spokesman said on Sunday, Reuters reports

A faction of the militant group released 21 of more than 200 Chibok school girls last week Thursday after the Red Cross and the Swiss government brokered a deal. They were brought from the north-eastern city of Maiduguri to the capital Abuja to meet state officials.

“These 21 released girls are supposed to be tale bearers to tell the Nigerian government that this faction of Boko Haram has 83 more Chibok girls,” Garba Shehu, spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

“The faction said it is ready to negotiate if the government is willing to sit down with them,” said Shehu, adding that the state is prepared to negotiate with the branch of Boko Haram.

The girls were kidnapped in April 2014 in Borno state, northeast Nigeria. Boko Haram has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state, killing thousands and displacing more than 2 million people