Kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls 'to be freed' after deal with Islamic fundamentalists Boko Haram who seized more than 200 teenagers
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- Ceasefire deal announced by the Nigerian military and country's president
- Islamic militants captured more than 200 girls from their school in April
- Leader Abubakar Shekau had vowed to sell the teenagers as sex slaves
- Terror group has been demanding release of jailed extremists in exchange
Published: 14:41 GMT, 17 October 2014
More than 200 schoolgirls seized by jihadi fighters in Nigeria over six months ago could be freed.
The country’s military said it has agreed a ceasefire with their captors, terror group Boko Haram, and claimed the girls’ release forms part of the truce.
The 276 girls, aged 11 to 18, were abducted from their school in the remote town of Chibok in April, sparking an international effort to track them down.
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Some of the 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram are seen in a video released by the terror group earlier this year. A deal has reportedly been reached to secure the release in a ceasefire agreement
Terrified: Some 276 girls were seized from their dormitories at the Government Girls Secondary School in the remote town of Chibok in Borno state, northeastern Nigeria, in April, but dozens managed to escaped
107 BOKO HARAM FIGHTERS KILLED BY TROOPS IN CAMEROON
Eight Cameroon soldiers and 107 Boko Haram militants have been killed in fighting in the far north of Cameroon, the defence ministry said in a statement read on state radio on Friday.
Boko Haram has stepped up cross-border attacks into Cameroon this year as part of its campaign for a de facto Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria.
Boko Haram negotiators 'assured that the schoolgirls and all other people in their captivity are all alive and well,' Mike Omeri, the government spokesman on the insurgency, told a news conference.
Boko Haram has been demanding the release of detained extremists in exchange for the girls.
There was no immediate word from Boko Haram, which limits its announcements almost exclusively to videos of its leader Abubakar Shekau.
It could take days for word to get to its fighters, who are broken into several groups.
They include foreigners from neighboring countries Chad, Cameroon and Niger, where the insurgents also have camps.
There have been unconfirmed reports that at least some of the girls have been carried across borders, and some forced to marry their captors.
A Boko Haram video in May showed two of the girls explaining why they had converted from Christianity to Islam.
The chief of defense staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, announced the truce and ordered his troops to immediately comply with the agreement.
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The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, has been demanding the release of detained extremists in exchange for the girls since they were captured from a boarding school in May
'Already, the terrorists have announced a ceasefire in furtherance of their desire for peace.
'In this regard, the government of Nigeria has, in similar vein, declared a cease-fire,' Omeri said.
He confirmed there had been direct negotiations this week about the release of the abducted girls.
Another official said the talks took place in neighbouring Chad. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to talk to reporters.
WHO ARE BOKO HARAM? INSIGHT INTO NIGERIAN TERROR GROUP THAT'S KILLED THOUSANDS IN BID TO CREATE AN ISLAMIC STATE
Boko Haram was founded in 2002 by Mohammed Yusuf – but it didn’t gain worldwide notoriety until it began a violent insurgency in earnest in 2009.
Ultimately, the group wants Nigeria to become an Islamic state.
Since mid-2009, it has killed thousands and has destabilised swathes of the northeast of Nigeria, as well as neighbours Cameroon and Niger.
Its name means ‘Western education is forbidden’ – and it’s the country’s school system that in the main fuels its anger.
But the group has murdered people – including Muslims - for merely speaking out against it.
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Firefighters and rescuers extinguish a fire at the scene of a bomb blast at Terminus market in the central city of Jos, Nigeria, in May, in one of two explosions blamed on terror group Boko Haram
Yusuf established an Islamic school and mosque, which proved popular with many poor Muslim families.
He was killed by Nigerian security forces in 2009, but rather than weaken the group, it re-emerged with increased ferocity under the leadership of Abubakar Shekau.
It has bombed churches, barracks and even the UN headquarters and often uses gunmen on the back of motorbikes to ruthless cut down those who criticise it.
President Goodluck Jonathan became so alarmed at the chaos the group was spreading that in 2013 he declared a state of emergency in the areas where it was most active – Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
The Nigerian military has been fairly ineffective against the heavily armed group.
A lack of investment in training, failure to maintain equipment and dwindling cooperation with Western forces has damaged Nigeria's armed services, while in Boko Haram they face an increasingly well-armed, determined foe.
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Men look at the wreckage of a car following a bomb blast at St Theresa Catholic Church outside the Nigerian capital Abuja on December 25, 2011 amid spiralling violence blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram
The militants know the military's limitations.
A police source said a fighter jet flew over the market town of Gamburu last Monday as a group of gunmen killed at least 125, but the killers didn't flinch, knowing they could not be targeted while scattered in a densely populated area.
‘In a typical unit, Boko Haram has between 300 and 500 fighters. It's not a guerrilla force that you can fight half heartedly,’ said Jacob Zenn, a Boko Haram expert at U.S. counter-terrorism institution CTC Sentinel said in May.
‘It's snowballing. It's getting more weapons, more recruits, their power is increasing every day.’
On February 12 dozens of fighters loyal to Boko Haram attacked a remote military outpost in the Gwoza hills.
A security source with knowledge of the assault said they came in Hilux tracks with mounted machine guns and showered the camp with gunfire.
Boko Haram's fighters had little cover and were easily picked off - 50 of them died against nine Nigerian troops - but they still managed to make off with the base's entire armoury stockpile of 200 mortar bombs, 50 rocket-propelled grenades and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, the source said.
Their ability to dart over the border into Cameroon, whose own security forces have shown little appetite for taking them on, gives the militants an added advantage.
Ethnic and religious divisions within the military have also bred some collusion with Boko Haram, sources say.
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Women protest against the release of the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram fighters. The case of the abducted school girls drew global attention, magnified by a #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign
DID HASHTAG APPEAL HELP GIRLS?
More than three weeks after the Islamic extremists abducted the girls, the world outrage galvanised Twitter and other social-media networks.
The case was not widely followed until #BringBackOurGirls and other hashtags attracted a torrent of attention.
More than 2.1million tweets using #BringBackOurGirls were posted within weeks of their abduction, according to Topsy, a site that offers Twitter analytics.
Their plight was then magnified when celebrities including Michelle Obama (above) and Angelina Jolie joined up, placing pressure on world leaders to secure their release.
Some 276 girls were seized from their dormitories at the Government Girls Secondary School in the remote town of Chibok in Borno state, northeastern Nigeria, on the night of April 14.
Fifty-seven escaped and Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau later vowed to sell the rest as sex slaves.
In the weeks after the kidnapping, Mr Brown, a UN envoy, had led calls for an 'international and domestic response'.
Jonathan was criticised at home and abroad for his slow response to the kidnapping and for his inability to quell the violence by the terror group, whose name means 'Western education is forbidden.'
The Nigerian military has twice claimed its leader Abubakr Shekau had been killed, but Boko Haram later issued video denials.
The latest one came earlier this month when he was apparently seen in a video that shows the beheading of a man who identifies himself the pilot of a missing Nigerian Air Force jet
Their plight drew global attention, magnified by a #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign that drew in celebrities including Michelle Obama and Angelina Jolie.
Earlier this week, the United States reaffirmed its commitment to helping Nigeria find the group while former British prime minister Gordon Brown said the world should not forget the girls' struggle.
Their plight drew protests around the world with demands that the military and government get them free.
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Pakistani school pupil and education activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban, with Rebecca Samuel, whose daughter is missing in Abuja, Nigeria. Malala travelled to Abuja in Nigeria to meet the relatives of schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram earlier this year