ICC Note:
The Nigerian government has said that all options are open, including negations with Boko Haram leadership, for achieving the release of girls abducted April 14 from a secondary school in predominantly Christian Chibok, and from Warabe Village. The representatives of the Nigerian government stated a special committee created for the sole purpose of mediating communication between Boko Haram an the Nigerian state is the sole avenue for any potential negotiation. Saturday, President Goodluck Jonathan will attend a security conference in Paris, organized by French President Francois Hollande, to discuss issues fighting Boko Haram on Nigeria’s borders with Nigerm, Chad, and Cameroon.
05/13/2014 Nigeria (AP) – U.S. reconnaissance aircraft flew over Nigeria in search of the nearly 300 kidnapped schoolgirls Tuesday, a day after the Boko Haram militant group released the first evidence that at least some of them are still alive and demanded that jailed fighters be swapped for their freedom.
A Nigerian government official said “all options” were open – including negotiations or a possible military operation with foreign help – in the effort to free the girls, who were shown fearful and huddled together dressed in gray Islamic veils as they sang Quranic verses under the guns of their captors in a video released Monday.
The footage was verified as authentic by Nigerian authorities, who said 54 of the girls had been identified by relatives, teachers and classmates who watched the video late Tuesday.
The abduction has spurred a global movement to secure the girls’ release amid fears they would be sold into slavery, married off to fighters or worse following a series of threats by Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.
Protesters marched through the streets of the capital, Abuja, Tuesday to demand more government action to find and free the girls, who are believed to be held in the vast Sambisi forest some 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the eastern town of Chibok, where they were seized from their school on April 15.
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