Nigeria in ceasefire talks with Boko Haram
Election is set for next February, but it’s not clear if Buhari will stand
Nigeria’s government is in talks with Islamist militant group Boko Haram about a possible ceasefire with the ultimate aim of securing a permanent cessation of hostilities, the country’s information minister said on Sunday.
It is the first time in years the government has said it is talking to Boko Haram about a ceasefire in an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people since 2009. President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has repeatedly said it is willing to hold talks with the group.
“Unknown to many, we have been in wider cessation-ofhostility talks with the insurgents for some time now,” said Information Minister Lai Mohammad in an emailed statement outlining the background to the release of more than 100 schoolgirls freed last week by the group.
They had been kidnapped on February 19 from the northeastern town of Dapchi. The kidnap of about 110 schoolgirls was the biggest mass abduction since around 270 girls were taken from the northeastern town of Chibok, in 2014.
Boko Haram fighters stunned Dapchi’s residents on Wednesday when they drove into the town and released the girls, who said five of their group had died in captivity and one had not been freed.
Six girls missing
Mohammad said a weeklong ceasefire, starting on March 19, had been agreed to enable the group to drop off the girls.
Mohammad said 111 girls were taken from the school — one more than previously thought — and six remained unaccounted for.
The freed girls were returned home to Dapchi on Sunday after meeting Buhari in the capital, Abuja, last week, according the parents of at least two girls.
“We were able to leverage on the wider talks when the Dapchi girls were abducted,” said Mohammed.
“The ultimate aim is the permanent cessation of hostilities,” he later told Reuters by telephone. A presidential spokesman declined to comment. A spokeswoman who purportedly represents the insurgents could not immediately be reached.