Nigeria Ready to Negotiate Boko Haram

Local Editor

Nigeria's government signaled willingness on Tuesday to negotiate with extremist militants holding more than 200 schoolgirls, a month after the kidnap that has provoked global outrage.

"The window of negotiation is still open," Minister of Special Duties Tanimu Turaki said.

He spoke a day after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau posted a video offering to release the girls in exchange for prisoners held by the government.
The video showed more than 110 girls sitting on the ground in a rural location, the first time they have been seen in captivity.

Senior officials say the government is exploring options and has made no commitment to negotiations for the release of the girls and Turaki declined to comment on possible talks over the kidnapping itself.
Instead, he referred to an amnesty committee that he heads set up by President Goodluck Jonathan last year to talk to the Boko Haram militants behind a five-year-old insurgency.
It was not clear when or where the video was filmed or whether Shekau, who sat in front of a green backdrop holding an AK-47 during part of the video, was in the same location as the girls.

The US State Department said Washington had sent in military, law-enforcement and development experts.
"We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] assets over Nigeria with the government's permission," US official said.

For his part, US Senator John McCain urged his administration to feel no compunction to withhold sending special operations forces to find the kidnapped girls - especially in a country led by "some guy named Goodluck Jonathan."
"If they knew where they were, I certainly would send in US troops to rescue them, in a New York minute I would, without permission of the host country," McCain said on Tuesday. "I wouldn't be waiting for some kind of permission from some guy named Goodluck Jonathan," he declared, in reference to Nigeria's president.

Furthermore, Britain's minister for Africa Mark Simmonds would travel to the Nigerian capital on Wednesday for talks on further assistance, the Foreign Office in London said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team