Boko Haram, an Islamic Jihadist terrorist group has offered to release hundreds of kidnapped girls in exchange for militant leaders detained by the Nigerian military. The group kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria in 2014. Femi Adesina, advisor to President Muhammadu Buhari that the government is open to negotiations on Saturday, July 4. The negotiations follow a string of recent attacks led by militants in the past nine days.
"Most wars, however furious or vicious, often end around the negotiation table," said Adesina to AP.
The militants kidnapped the girls from the Government Secondary School at Chibok in Borno State. The teenage girls were in school to take a physics exam at the time of the abductions. Some managed to escape, but an estimated 219 girls remain as captives. Boko Haram leader Abubaker Shekau released a video of the girls in May 2014. Shekau told the public that the girls should not have been in school, but instead should have been married.
"Some serious observers suspect that some of the girls are the female suicide bombers that have become common over the past year. Some of the girls have been forcibly married, according to Boko Haram leaders, and thus have been abused as sex slaves," said Nina Shea, the director of the U.S.-based Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom to The Christian Post.
The kidnapping of the girls in 2014 spurred an online social media movement entitled "#BringBackOurGirls," which was supported by First Lady Michelle Obama. Most of the girls are Christian, but some have reportedly converted to the Islamic religion of Boko Haram. Boko Haram translates to "Western education is forbidden" in the English language. It is a branch of ISIS & the Levant, a group of militants run by Sunni Muslims.
