We know where missing girls are' says Nigeria's top military officer
Nigeria's
military says it knows where the more than 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram are
but it has ruled out using force to rescue them
By Agencies
10:10PM BST 26 May 2014
Nigeria's military knows where the
more than 200 girls abducted by Boko Haram are but has ruled out using force to
rescue them, the state news agency quoted Chief of Defence Staff Air Marshal
Alex Badeh as saying on Monday.
Seven weeks since Boko Haram
militants abducted more than 200 girls taking exams in a secondary school in
the remote northeastern village of Chibok and little is known of there
whereabouts or what exactly the military is doing to get them out.
"The good news for the parents
of the girls is that we know where they are, but we cannot tell you,"
Badeh was quoted as saying. "But where they are held, can we go there with
force? We can't kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back."
Most officials think any raid to
rescue them would be fraught with danger and probably not worth the risk that
the girls would be killed by their captors - an Islamist group that has shown a
degree of ruthlessness in killing civilians.
Since the girls were captured, at
least 470 civilians have been killed by Boko Haram, which says it is fighting
to establish an Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria, in various
locations, according to a Reuters count.
The BBC reported earlier today that
a deal was close to being agreed to rescue the girls in exchange for Boko Haram
prisoners - a demand the group had made public - but that it was called off at
the last minute.
Over the weekend, Senate President
David Mark, the country's number three, ruled out doing a deal with Boko Haram.
"This government cannot
negotiate with criminals and ... will not exchange people for criminals. A
criminal will be treated like a criminal," he was quoted by local media as
saying. Coiled from The Telegraph.
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