The mother of a kidnapped Chibok schoolgirl appealed Monday for Nigeria's president to free detained Boko Haram militants in exchange for the more than 200 girls held captive, as the Islamic extremists have offered.
A Boko Haram
video posted Sunday shows dozens of the 218 girls who were abducted
from a remote school in April 2014, with one saying that "some" have
died in military airstrikes.
Nigeria's defense ministry disputed that Monday. "It is extremely
difficult and rare to hit innocent people during airstrikes because the
operation is done through precision attacks on identified and registered
targets and locations," spokesman Brig. Gen. Rabe Abubakar said in a
statement.
In the video, one of the kidnapped girls begs their parents to press
Nigeria's government to free detained Boko Haram members so that the
schoolgirls can be freed in a prisoner swap.
"The government should just release the militants," her mother, Esther
Yakubu, told The Associated Press. She wept when she watched the first
proof of life of her daughter since her capture.
"All the girls that have been rescued have rescued themselves. Not any
government has rescued them, no army rescued them," she said.
Dozens escaped on their own within hours of the mass abduction of 276
students that shocked the world. In May, a lone Chibok girl escaped from
the Sambisa Forest stronghold of Boko Haram, saying she was led to
freedom by her disillusioned Boko Haram "husband."
The Bring Back Our Girls campaign is also pressing for a prisoner
exchange, saying President Muhammadu Buhari "rode to power" on the back
of their cause but has done nothing tangible to free the girls. Buhari
won March 2015 elections in part because of former President Goodluck
Jonathan's failure to rescue the girls.
"Mr. Buhari can absolutely afford to trade terrorists' lives for schoolgirls," said human rights
lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe, whose Education Must Continue campaign is paying
to educate some of the escaped Chibok girls in the United States.
He questioned the president's sincerity, noting that Buhari said in May
that he had not watched a proof-of-life video sent by Boko Haram to
encourage negotiations, apparently as early as January.
Officials are wary, noting previous negotiations have failed because officials have been duped into talks with the wrong people.
"We are being extremely careful," Information Minister Lai Mohammed said
in a statement. "We want to be doubly sure that those we are in touch
with are who they claim to be."
A fighter who speaks in the video hints at who could mediate. "We want
the government to know that ... we don't trust you, we only trust a few
journalists."
The video was posted Sunday by Nigerian journalist Ahmad Salkida, who
lives in Dubai and is known to have good contacts in Boko Haram. Salkida
said the video was sent to him by Abubakar Shekau's wing of Boko Haram.
On Sunday night, Nigeria's military declared Salkida a wanted man,
claiming he has "information on the conditions and the exact location of
these girls."
Salkida responded Monday that "my status as a Nigerian journalist who
has reported extensively, painstakingly and consistently on the Boko
Haram menace ... is an open book."
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