Boko Haram Kidnap Girls: New Hope For 200 Hostages Who Sparked Global Twitter Campaign

Thousands of activists have campaigned for the girls to be brought home safely

Boko Haram’s proposal could end the mass-kidnapping outrage that sparked the global Bring Back Our Girls Twitter campaign supported by more than five million people including America’s First Lady Michelle Obama.
The ISIS affiliate wants 16 of their senior fighters handed over in return for the 219 girls taken from a boarding school in the north-east 11 months ago.

Details have emerged through a human rights activist, Fred Eno, who has been negotiating with the militant leaders for more than a year.

Mr Eno said the fresh hopes follow the election of Nigeria’s new leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, five weeks ago.

He said relations had broken down with his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, but Mr Buhari could approach Boko Haram with “a clean slate”.

Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of girls and has shattered cities in Nigeria

Michelle Obama became involved in the campaign to bring the Nigerian schoolgirls back

The boarding school girls were taken in April last year from Chibok, north-east Nigeria, as part of a ferocious campaign of murder, torture and kidnapping.

In a video released a month later, Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau warned: “You won’t see the girls again unless you release our brothers you have captured.”

After President Buhari met the campaign leaders for the first time this week, leading activists said the girls’ freedom would be a massive step for human rights.

One, Oby Ezekwesili, added: “The rescue of the Chibok girls would be the strongest statement this government could make for having respect for the sanctity and dignity of every Nigerian life.”