Nigerian government: Boko Haram has agreed to ceasefire, release of kidnapped girls

The Nigerian government has ordered its troops to stop fighting against Boko Haram militants, saying that the Muslim extremists group has agreed to a ceasefire and the release of over 200 kidnapped girls.

 

The country’s highest-ranking military official, General Alex Badeh, announced the cease-fire agreement and ordered all of the country’s military chiefs to abide by the deal. Badeh said his troops “to comply with the cease-fire agreement between Nigeria and Boko Haram in all theaters of operations.”

 

Top Nigerian presidential aide Hassan Tukur tells VOA’s Hausa service “that the militants have agreed in principle to free the schoolgirls. He said negotiations in the past had not yet ‘yielded any positive results,’ but he is cautiously optimistic this time.”

 

“The cease-fire talks were held in Chad and involved Chad’s president, Idriss Deby, and senior officials from Cameroon. It  marks a possible end to the five-year insurgency in which several thousand Nigerians have been killed,” the Oct. 18 article detailed.

 

“They’ve assured us they have the girls and they will release them,” Nigerian presidential aid Hassan Tukur said. 

“I am cautiously optimistic.”

 

While the Sunni Muslim militants have terrorized the nation for the last few years, it was the kidnappiing of over 200 school girls that catapulted the extremists into the global headlines. They followed this action with the declaraction of an Islamic State in the northern portion of the country as their violence spread to neighboring countries.

 

Boko Haram leader known as Abubakar Shekau threatened to sell the other girls as slave brides, vowing they would not be released until militant prisoners were freed from jail.

 

Speaking to the BBC, Nigerian government spokesman Mike Omeri said Boko Haram would not be given territory under the ceasefire agreement – and that the government would not reveal what concessions it would make.

“We are inching closer to release of all groups in captivity, including the Chibok girls,” he said.