The Telegraph has today reported that the Nigerian
Islamists who kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls are seeking a prisoner swap
for jailed comrades, The Daily Telegraph has been told.
Shehu Sani,
who has previously brokered face-to-face peace talks with Boko Haram, said he
believed that the video in which its leader threatened to sell the girls as
“slaves” was proof that it planned to use them as bargaining chips rather than
kill them.
The video
released earlier this week showed Abubakar Shekau gloating that he would sell
the captives “in the market” to anyone wishing to take them as wives.
But while the broadcast appalled the captives’ families and provoked worldwide outrage, Mr Sani saw it as a veiled attempt to reach out for a trade with the Nigerian government
Mr Sani
said:
From my
knowledge of the group, to have him saying that he will sell them is proof that
this issue can be resolved.
If you look
at the fact that these girls have already been in captivity for some three
weeks, then it is possible to detect a conciliatory tone in this statement from
Shekau – he is not saying he is going to kill the girls. The group is most
likely to want to attach some kind of conditions to the girls being released,
such as the freeing of some of their own prisoners.”
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