President Muhammadu Buhari told newsmen on Wednesday that Nigerian
\nauthorities were talking to Boko Haram prisoners in their custody and
\ncould offer them amnesty if the extremist group hands over more than 200
\nschoolgirls abducted last year. Buhari added that he was confident
\n\u201cconventional\u201d attacks by the group would be rooted out by November \u2014 but
\ncautioned that deadly suicide attacks were likely to continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe few (prisoners) we are holding, we are trying to see whether we can
\nnegotiate with them for the release of the Chibok girls,\u201d Buhari said in
\nan interview in Paris during a three-day visit to France. \u201cIf the Boko
\nHaram leadership eventually agrees to turn over the Chibok girls to us \u2014
\nthe complete number \u2014 then we may decide to give them (the prisoners)
\namnesty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boko Haram fighters stormed a school in the remote northeastern Nigerian
\ntown of Chibok on April 14 last year, seizing 276 girls who were preparing
\nfor end-of-year exams in an abduction that shocked the world. Fifty-seven
\nescaped, but nothing has been heard of the 219 others since May last year,
\nwhen about 100 of them appeared in a Boko Haram video, dressed in Muslim
\nattire and reciting the Koran.<\/p>\n
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has since said they have all converted
\nto Islam and been \u201cmarried off\u201d. Buhari, who has promised to stamp out the
\ngroup\u2019s bloody six-year insurgency, said the government would not release
\nany prisoners unless it was convinced it could \u201cget the girls in
\nreasonably healthy condition\u201d.<\/p>\n
But he cautioned that negotiating with Boko Haram militants was fraught
\nwith difficulties. \u201cWe are trying to establish if they are bona fide, how
\nuseful they are in Boko Haram, have they reached a position of leadership
\nwhere their absence is of relevance to the operation of Boko Haram?\u201d he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\u2018Occasional bombings\u2019 won\u2019t stop<\/p>\n
Boko Haram\u2019s insurgency, which has claimed more than 15,000 lives and
\nforced 1.5 million others out of their homes, has intensified since Buhari
\ncame to power on May 29 on the back of a historic election win. While it
\nhas lost territory it once controlled in northeastern Nigeria, the group
\nhas nevertheless stepped up deadly ambushes in its traditional heartland
\nand across the border in Cameroon and Chad.<\/p>\n
In August, Buhari gave a brand new set of military chiefs a three-month
\ndeadline to end the insurgency. He said Wednesday he was confident this
\ndeadline would be respected \u2014 but only on Boko Haram\u2019s \u201cconventional\u201d
\nassaults and not necessarily on the random suicide attacks that have
\nkilled hundreds since he took office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main conventional attacks, where Boko Haram use armoured cars they
\ntook from Nigerian troops, or mounted machine-guns on pick-ups and so on,
\nwe believe by the end of the three months, we will see the back of that,\u201d
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat may not absolutely stop is the occasional bombings by the use of
\nimprovised explosive devices,\u201d he cautioned. \u201cWe do not expect a 100
\npercent stoppage of the insurgency.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Muhammadu Buhari told newsmen on Wednesday that Nigerian authorities were talking to Boko Haram prisoners in their custody and could offer them amnesty if the extremist group hands over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n