Nigeria ready to negotiate with Boko Haram for release of kidnapped girls

Nigeria’s government is prepared to negotiate with Islamist militant group Boko Haram to secure the release of around 200 schoolgirls kidnapped last year, if credible leaders are identified, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Wednesday.

“We are prepared to negotiate with them without any preconditions,” Buhari told journalists in a televised interview.

Boko Haram seized the girls from their dormitories in the northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, sparking international outrage.

He said there was no firm intelligence on the whereabouts of the girls or whether they are still alive.

Boko Haram has been detrimental to Nigeria’s security with the latest attack on Monday killing at least 48 people.

The attack came a day after the army fought Boko Haram militants west of Maiduguri, capital of Borno state and birthplace of their insurgency in the northeast of Africa’s most populous country.