Islamic extremist militants Boko Haram, who have killed at least 2,600
people in Nigeria, reportedly want to broker a deal with the government to
release the remaining kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls in return for escaping
execution.
Two hundred schoolgirls were seized from a school in Chibok two years ago
and have never been traced or found. It is believed only a third of them
remain alive.
According to a report in The Times, senior members of the terrorist group
told Nigerian newspaper Leadership Friday that it was prepared to
negotiate a surrender and release the hostages on the condition they would
not be not betrayed by the government or killed for giving up arms.
“We want to surrender because things are getting worse,” said Amir
Muhammad Abdullahi, who is reportedly Boko Haram’s second in command. He
said no side was winning the battle and that only a third of the girls
remained as “the rest have been martyred”.
It comes as two Chibok girls have reportedly been released – one of whom
called Amina Ali Darsha Nkeki who was found near Sambisa forest and
believed to have been freed as a ‘gesture of good faith’ by the militants.
However, there was confusion mounting over whether the second girl, (who
has not been named), was freed in a raid on a Boko Haram camp on 19 May,
was from Chibok. Yakubu Nkeke told The Times: “I can say in my capacity as
the head of the Chibok Abducted Girls Parents group that this girl is not
among the abducted girls.”