ICC Note:
After a meeting with the president was cancelled last week, reportedly as result of political posturing by #BringBackOurGirls, an Abuja-based non-profit, parents of the girls abducted from Chibok Village’s Government Girls Secondary School in April visited the Presidential Palace this morning. Their 98th day in captivity, more than 240 schoolgirls remain under the oppression of Boko Haram, a radical Islamic insurgency bent on establishing an Islamic state in northern Nigeria. The group has stated it will only release and return the girls as part of a prisoner swap for captured Boko Haram militants. The government has rejected that proposition repeatedly. Learn everything you need to know about Boko Haram’s heinous schoolgirl abduction here.
07/22/2014 Nigeria (BBC) – Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan is meeting for the first time parents of the girls abducted by militant Islamists 100 days ago.
More than 150 people attended the meeting after the government chartered a plane for them, reports say.
Mr Jonathan has been under pressure to meet the parents after being accused of handing the crisis badly.
Parents pulled out of a meeting with him last week amid accusations they were being used for political reasons.
The parents of 11 of the girls have died since their abduction by the Boko Haram group, the Associated Press news agency reports.
The abduction of the more than 200 schoolgirls sparked global outrage.
Boko Haram has offered to free the girls in exchange for the release of its fighters and relatives held by the security forces.
The government has rejected this.
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After a brief prayer, the group entered the presidential building for the meeting, the AFP news agency reports.
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