Nigeria plans to negotiate with Boko Haram terrorists to secure the release of the schoolgirls abducted by the group in 2014 as well as last month, after discussing the plan with the United States’ visiting secretary of state, according to an emailed statement by Muhammadu Buhari’s office on Monday.
Nigeria’s President and former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari discussed the use of negotiations during a meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the capital, Abuja.
“Nigeria prefers to have schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok and Dapchi back alive, and that is why it has chosen negotiation, rather than a military option,”Nigeria’s President said.
President Buhari added that Nigeria was working in concert with international organizations and negotiators to ensure that the girls were released unharmed by their captors.
Boko Haram terrorists attacked a school in the northeastern town of Dapchi in the state of Yobe on February 19. While many schoolgirls managed to escape in time, a number of others remain unaccounted for and are presumed abducted.
The Boko Haram terrorist group had already kidnapped more than 270 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014.
At least 20,000 people have been killed in acts of terror by Boko Haram in Nigeria since 2009, when the group launched militancy.
