Boko Haram seek to swap kidnapped girls

Nigeria’s Boko Haram extremists are offering to free more than 200 young women and girls kidnapped from a boarding school in the town of Chibok in exchange for the release of militant leaders held by the government, a human rights activist said.

The activist said Boko Haram’s current offer is limited to the girls from the school in north-eastern Nigeria whose mass abduction in April 2014 ignited worldwide outrage and a campaign to “Bring Back Our Girls” that stretched to the White House.

The new initiative reopens an offer made last year to the government of former president Goodluck Jonathan to release the 219 students in exchange for 16 Boko Haram detainees, the activist said.

“Another window of opportunity opened” in the last few days, according to Fred Eno, who has been negotiating with Boko Haram for more than a year.

He said he could not discuss details but explained that the recent slew of Boko Haram bloodletting — some 350 people killed in the past nine days — is consistent with past ratcheting up of violence as the militants seek a stronger negotiating position.

Presidential adviser Femi Adesina said on Saturday that Nigeria’s government “will not be averse” to talks with Boko Haram. “Most wars, however furious or vicious, often end around the negotiation table,” he said.

Eno said the five-week-old administration of President Muhammadu Buhari offers “a clean slate” to bring the militants back to negotiations that had become poisoned by the different security agencies and their advice to Jonathan.

Two months of talks last year led government representatives and Eno to travel in September to a north-eastern town where the prisoner exchange was to take place – only to be stymied by the department for state service, the activist said.

At the last minute, the intelligence agency said that it was holding only four of the militants sought by Boko Haram, he said.

It is not known how many Boko Haram suspects are detained by Nigeria’s intelligence agency, whose chief Mr Buhari fired last week.

In May, about 300 women, girls and children being held captive by Boko Haram were rescued by Nigeria’s military, but none were from Chibok.

It is believed the militants view the girls as a last-resort bargaining chip.