LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s president says the government is talking to the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram about the more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls.
Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina in a tweet late Tuesday quoted President Muhammadu Buhari as saying the government is talking to Boko Haram members and it is trying to make sure they are genuine leaders. Buhari is in France on a three-day state tour.
Military from Nigeria and Chad freed hundreds of hostages from Boko Haram captivity earlier this year but none of those rescued were from the 219 girls abducted in April 2014 from a school in Chibok.
Nigeria’s homegrown Islamic extremist group has used dozens of girls and women in recent suicide bombings in Nigeria and neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger, raising fears they are kidnap victims.