Nigeria's military has located nearly 300 school girls abducted by Boko Haram almost seven weeks ago, the country's chief of defence said.
Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff, said on Monday that any potential armed rescue operation was fraught with danger as the 223 girls still held hostage could be caught in the crossfire.
Boko Haram fighters kidnapped 276 girls from the remote northeastern town of Chibok on April 14, leading to global outrage.
"The good news for the girls is that we know where they are but we cannot tell you," Badeh told reporters in the capital Abuja, as the hostage crisis entered its seventh week.
"We can't go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back," he said.
Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from the capital Abuja, says it is still not clear how accurate the military's comments are, and there remains a lot of scepticism in the minds of the public.
Nigeria's government and military have been sharply criticised for their slow response to the mass abduction and were finally forced to accept foreign help in the rescue effort.
US drones have been surveying northeast Nigeria and neighbouring Chad from the air while British, French and Israeli teams have been on the ground providing specialist assistance.
The military has previously said that the search was centred around the Sambisa forest area of Borno, in northeast Nigeria, where makeshift fighter camps have previously been found as well as arms and ammunition caches.
On Monday, gunmen killed four Nigerian soldiers in an ambush on a military patrol in central Plateau state, about 180kms southeast of Jos, a local government official said.
It was not immediately clear if Boko Haram had carried out this attack.
Since the girls were captured, according to a Reuters count, at least 470 civilians have died violent deaths in various locations at the hands of Boko Haram, which says it is fighting to establish an Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has branded the group an "al-Qaeda of West Africa".
The United Nations Security Council last week designated Boko Haram an al-Qaeda-linked organisation, in a move designed to curb any overseas funding and support, as well as restrict its leaders' movements.
But analysts have questioned whether the sanctions would have any effect on the ground, given the group's largely localised campaign of murderous violence to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
Aljazeera
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Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Monday, May 26, 2014
Market attack leaves 20 dead in Maiduguri, Nigeria
Suspected Islamist gunmen opened fire on a market in a Nigerian village on Sunday, killing 20 people in the latest violence against civilians in the northeast of Africa's top oil producer.
The assailants surrounded the village of Kamuyya, a military source based in the nearest town told Reuters. The militants shot people as they gathered to trade in its open air market.
Villages in Borno state, the epicentre of Boko Haram's violent campaign to carve an Islamic caliphate out of religiously mixed Nigeria, have been under almost daily attack.
On Thursday, suspected Boko Haram gunmen rampaged through three villages in northern Nigeria, killing 28 people and burning houses to the ground.
Boko Haram made world headlines when it claimed the abduction of more than 200 school girls from the village of Chibok last month, prompting international outrage and persuading President Goodluck Jonathan to accept foreign help to try to free them, including a team of around 80 U.S. troops deployed to neighbouring Chad, and surveillance drones.
Since the girl were snatched on April 14, at least 470 civilians have been killed by the insurgents in various attacks, according to a Reuters count.
A spate of bombings across north and central Nigeria has killed hundreds, including two in the capital Abuja and one in the central city of Jos on Tuesday that killed 118 people.
A suicide bombing on Saturday that was meant to strike an open air viewing of the Champions League soccer final match in the central Nigerian city of Jos killed four people but failed to hit its target, the National Emergency Management Agency said.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan travelled to South Africa over the weekend, his office said, to discuss ways of tackling Islamist militancy across the continent with African heads of state.
The meeting "defined a stronger framework for cooperation among African states to deal with this menace", presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said, giving no details.
A presidential team tasked with locating the girls returned from Borno state to the capital Abuja on Sunday, they said in a statement. It did not say if any progress had been made.
Reuters
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The assailants surrounded the village of Kamuyya, a military source based in the nearest town told Reuters. The militants shot people as they gathered to trade in its open air market.
Villages in Borno state, the epicentre of Boko Haram's violent campaign to carve an Islamic caliphate out of religiously mixed Nigeria, have been under almost daily attack.
On Thursday, suspected Boko Haram gunmen rampaged through three villages in northern Nigeria, killing 28 people and burning houses to the ground.
Boko Haram made world headlines when it claimed the abduction of more than 200 school girls from the village of Chibok last month, prompting international outrage and persuading President Goodluck Jonathan to accept foreign help to try to free them, including a team of around 80 U.S. troops deployed to neighbouring Chad, and surveillance drones.
Since the girl were snatched on April 14, at least 470 civilians have been killed by the insurgents in various attacks, according to a Reuters count.
A spate of bombings across north and central Nigeria has killed hundreds, including two in the capital Abuja and one in the central city of Jos on Tuesday that killed 118 people.
A suicide bombing on Saturday that was meant to strike an open air viewing of the Champions League soccer final match in the central Nigerian city of Jos killed four people but failed to hit its target, the National Emergency Management Agency said.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan travelled to South Africa over the weekend, his office said, to discuss ways of tackling Islamist militancy across the continent with African heads of state.
The meeting "defined a stronger framework for cooperation among African states to deal with this menace", presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said, giving no details.
A presidential team tasked with locating the girls returned from Borno state to the capital Abuja on Sunday, they said in a statement. It did not say if any progress had been made.
Reuters
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Boko Haram's attacks on schools in Nigeria have taken a toll on education. But even before the recent violence and last month's kidnapping of more than 270 schoolgirls, women in the largely impoverished north did not have many choices.
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Friday, May 23, 2014
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The killings and kidnappings in northeastern Nigeria have prompted members of parliament to extend the year-long state of emergency there. But the capital of Adamawa State, the continuing security crackdown is bad for business.
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