Nigeria willing to talk with Boko Haram on hostages

ABUJA: Nigeria’s Special Duties Minister Taminu Turaki said Tuesday that his country is willing to talk to Boko Haram about securing the release of the kidnapped schoolgirls.
Turaki, who last year headed a committee tasked with pursuing an amnesty pact with some Boko Haram fighters, said: “Nigeria has always been willing to dialogue with the insurgents...
“We are willing to carry that dialogue on any issue, including the girls kidnapped in Chibok, because certainly we are not going to say the abduction is not an issue.”
Meanwhile, US surveillance aircraft were flying over remote areas of northeast Nigeria as part of an international hunt for the kidnapped girls.
Thousands of Nigerian troops have been sent to the region, while the United States and Britain also have teams on the ground to help with the search.
The mass abduction of the girls from their boarding school in Chibok has caused international outrage and Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s government has faced criticism from parents and others for its a slow response.
It has also brought global publicity to Boko Haram, which has killed killed thousands of Nigerians since it took up arms in 2009 to fight for a separate state.
The girls’ exact whereabouts and whether they are being held in one or more groups is not known. Chibok is close to Nigeria’s border with Cameroon, Niger and Chad in a sparsely populated area of the Sahel region. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau posted a video offering to release the girls in exchange for prisoners held by the government — the first visual evidence of them in captivity. The government said in response that it was exploring all options.
Meanwhile, Nigerian president asked the country’s Parliament for a six-month extension to the state of emergency in three northeastern states riven by violence.
“I most respectfully request the distinguished senators to consider and approve by resolution an extension of the proclamation of the state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states by a further term of six months from the date of expiration of the current time,” Jonathan wrote in a letter seen by AFP.
Jonathan’s request, which was widely expected, came on the eve of the first anniversary of the declaration of a six-month state of emergency designed to curb the threat posed by Boko Haram fighters.
The special measures saw a surge of troops into the region and efforts to disrupt planning of attacks such as cutting the mobile phone networks.