Nigerian police have offered a 50m naira (£177,000, or $300,000) reward for information on the whereabouts of 276 girls kidnapped by Islamist rebels three weeks ago in a sign that the government has begun to react to growing pressure at home and abroad.
The call for help follows the US and Britain offering military and technical support to Nigeria to hunt down the group, which abducted a second group of schoolgirls on Monday, as Barack Obama led a mounting international outcry.
A statement from the Nigerian police high command said on Wednesday anyone who "volunteers credible information that will lead to the location and rescue of the female students" was eligible for the reward. It said "any information given would be treated anonymously and with utmost confidentiality".
Boko Haram is holding 276 girls from a raid on a school in Chibok on 15 April and a further eight, aged between eight and 15, taken in an overnight raid on a village on Monday, also in the sect's stronghold in north-eastern Borno state. Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the group's main faction,released a video on Monday in which he threatened to sell the schoolgirls as slaves. Rights groups have documented the brutal treatment of women and girls who were previously abducted and used as sex slaves.
David Cameron told parliament on Wednesday that the abduction was "an act of pure evil" and he planned to speak to the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, later in the day.
Obama said the US was doing its utmost to help resolve the "terrible situation" but stopped short of offering to send troops – in contrast to Britain, which is prepared to send special forces and intelligence-gathering aircraft.
No comments:
Post a Comment