Nigerian Kidnapped Schoolgirls Forced Into Islam, Marriage

Nigerian Kidnapped Schoolgirls Forced Into Islam, Marriage (2)

By Gbenga Akingbule April 30, 2014

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http://www.bloomberg.com/image/ilcxVDfu1_hk.jpgA poster showing a photograph of Boko Haram Leader Abubakar Shekau sits by the road in Maiduguri. Shekau said in a video, “In Islam, it is allowed to take infidel women as slaves. In due course, we will start taking women away.” Photographer: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images

Schoolgirls in Nigeria abducted by suspected members of Boko Haram are being converted to Islam and taken as brides in forced marriages, said Pogu Bitrus, chairman of the Chibok Development Association.

Of the 230 students still missing following an April 14 raid on a school hostel in the Chibok area in the northeastern state of Borno, about 200 are Christians and the rest Muslims, Bitrus, who represents the body of community leaders, said yesterday.

Borno is the birthplace of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which means “western education is a sin” in the Hausa language. The group wants to impose Shariah, or Islamic law, in Africa’s biggest oil producer and largest economy. Leader Abubakar Shekau warned in a video obtained in March that all students should leave university and girls drop out of school to get married.

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“In Islam, it is allowed to take infidel women as slaves,” Shekau said. “In due course, we will start taking women away.”

The insurgency in the north and the security operations by President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to stop it have left at least 1,500 people dead this year, Amnesty International said on March 31.

So far 53 of the girls have escaped, leaving 220 still hostage, according to Asabe Kwambura, principal of the state-run Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok.

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About 200 protesters marched through major streets in Abuja today to the parliament to demand action by the government to rescue the hostages. “There must be a concerted effort to bring back our girls,” said Oby Ezekwesili, one of the leaders of the march. “We cannot simply act as if it is just another event.”

Senate President David Mark received the protesters, saying that lawmakers “share in your pain” and would work with them for the rescue of the girls.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gbenga Akingbule in Maiduguri at gakingbule@bloomberg.net

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...taken-as-wives

Nigerian girls were sold as brides
to militants for $12, relatives say

http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/ima...m-Homepage.jpg
If the claims are true, the alleged sell-off is one of the Boko Haram group’s most disturbing actions yet...

Boko Haram engaged in talks over kidnapped girls

By Aminu Abubakar, CNN
updated 11:54 AM EDT, Sat September 20, 2014

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/ass...al-gallery.jpgIslamist militant group waging a campaign of violence in northern Nigeria. The group's ambitions range from the stricter enforcement of Sharia law to the total destruction of the Nigerian state and its government. Click through to see recent bloody incidents in this strife-torn West African nation:" border="0" height="360" id="articleGalleryPhoto001" width="640" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px auto; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 11.1999998092651px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">A video of Abubakar Shekau, who claims to be the leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, is shown on September 25, 2013. Boko Haram is an Islamist militant group waging a campaign of violence in northern Nigeria. The group's ambitions range from the stricter enforcement of Sharia law to the total destruction of the Nigerian state and its government. Click through to see recent bloody incidents in this strife-torn West African nation:

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Boko Haram in talks with Nigerian officials and International Committee of the Red Cross
• Talks involve a swap of imprisoned members of the terror group for Chibok school girls kidnapped
• An estimated 276 girls were kidnapped in April from a boarding school in northeastern Nigeria

(CNN) -- Nigerian government officials and the International Committee of the Red Cross have had talks with Boko Haram about swapping prisoners of the Islamist terror group for the more than 200 Chibok school girls kidnapped in April, a source involved in the negotiations told CNN.

The officials met four times in mid-August with two senior members of Boko Haram in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

The swap would involve the released of 30 Boko Haram commanders in the custody of the Nigerian government, according to the source, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Boko Haram submitted a list with the names of 30 members who were either convicted or awaiting trial on terror offenses.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/ass...story-body.jpg
A screengrab taken in May from a Boko Haram video shows the schoolgirls in an undisclosed rural location.


"The two Boko Haram negotiators assured the ICRC and government negotiators that the girls were never raped, were never used as sex slaves and were never sexually assaulted," said the source, who attended the discussions.

The terror group abducted an estimated 276 girls in April from a boarding school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. Dozens escaped, but more than 200 are still missing.

Boko Haram has expressed a willingness for a swap with the ICRC at an undisclosed, according to the source. But there was disagreement on some terms, including the number of girls involved in the swap.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/ass...story-body.jpgHave missing Nigerian girls been spotted?

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/ass...story-body.jpgParents outraged over missing schoolgirls

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/ass...story-body.jpgSource: 63 girls escape Boko Haram
Boko Haram had insisted on an even swap -- 30 girls for the 30 commanders -- but the government refused, according to the source.

"They were only ready to release one to one, which the government was not going to accept," the source said.

Another hurdle in the talks was Boko Haram's insistence on meeting the imprisoned 30 members involved in the swap, but they only had contact with six at a prison outside Abuja, the source said.

The six prisoners included Kabiru Sokoto, a senior Boko Haram commander convicted in December 2013 of terror charges related to the deadly Christmas Day bombing of a church in the town of Madallah in 2011.

"ICRC couldn't find where the remaining 24 were being detained," the source said.

The Boko Haram negotiators said they would get back to the government after consulting with superiors.

ICRC sources declined to comment.

The name "Boko Haram" translates to "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language. The militant group is trying to impose strict Sharia law across Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa.

In recent years, its attacks have intensified in an apparent show of defiance amid the nation's military onslaught. Its ambitions appear to have expanded to the destruction of the Nigerian government.

Troops rescue 85 Nigerian hostages from Boko Haram

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/20/world/...html?hpt=hp_t2

http://www.alipac.us/f19/photo-promp...battle-311355/

Boko Haram lists prisoners in possible schoolgirl swap

Telegraph.co.uk

- ‎51 minutes ago‎

Boko Haram has released a list of 19 militants it wants the Nigerian government to free from prison in return for the schoolgirls that the group kidnapped last April...

Nigeria says it has deal with Boko Haram to release kidnapped girls

The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Oct. 17 2014, 10:44 AM EDT
Last updated Friday, Oct. 17 2014, 11:26 AM EDT

Nigeria’s government has reached a deal with Islamic militant group Boko Haram for a ceasefire and the release of around 200 girls kidnapped six months ago from a school in the northeast town of Chibok, the defence chief said on Friday.

“I wish to inform this audience that a ceasefire agreement has been concluded,” Marshal Alex Badeh said in a statement after three days of talks with the militant group that has wreaked havoc in the northeast of Africa’s biggest oil producer.

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A presidency source said the agreement included the girls, who were abducted from a secondary school in Chibok near the Cameroon border in April, sparking a worldwide outcry.

The girls have remained in captivity ever since, although police and a parent of some of the missing students said last month one of the girls had been released.

President Goodluck Jonathan has been pilloried at home and abroad for his slow response to the kidnapping and for his inability to quell the violence by the Islamist militants, seen as the biggest security threat to Africa’s biggest economy.

Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates as "Western education is sinful," has killed thousands of people in a five-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in the vast scrubland of Nigeria’s impoverished northeast.

A senior Nigerian security source confirmed the existence of talks, but said it remained unclear whether Abuja was negotiating with self-proclaimed movement leader Abubakar Shekau, or another faction within the group.

“Commitment among parts of Boko Haram and the military does appear to be genuine. It is worth taking seriously,” the security source told Reuters.

Several rounds of negotiations with Boko Haram have been attempted in recent years but they have never achieved a peace deal, partly because the group has several different factions.

“There are some talks but it depends on the buy-in of the whole group. I would be surprised if Shekau had suddenly changed his mind and is ready for a ceasefire,” the source added.

The government was negotiating with Danladi Ahmadu, a man calling himself the secretary-general of Boko Haram, the presidency source said. It was not clear if Ahmadu is part of the same faction as Shekau.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle21143310/