From a person who seems to have an insight into the
operations of Boko Haram came chilling accounts of girls taken captive by the
terror group.
“Girls tell how they were raped every day, week
after week. One girl was raped every day, sometimes several times a day by
groups of men. Some did not survive the ordeal,” Stephen Davis, an Australian
negotiator, who visited Nigeria to mediate the release of the Chibok girls
captured by the Islamist group, recounted in an article contributed to Sunday
Vanguard, titled, ‘When I met Asari and agreed a peace deal.’
The negotiator spoke on a day it emerged that Boko
Haram and government representatives held talks on swapping the group’s members
in prison with the kidnapped schoolgirls. At the talks, government reportedly
rejected Boko Haram’s demand to exchange 30 of its commanders in prison with 30
of the Chibok girls.
Davis was responding to a newspaper interview by a
former Niger-Delta militant leader, Alhaji Asari-Dokubo, in which he claimed
the almost 300 girls, reportedly captured in Government Secondary School,
Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram, may not have been seized after all.
By this weekend, the girls, some of whom apparently
escaped from their captors, have spent over 160 days in captivity.
The schoolgirls were seized on April 14.
“The escaped
girls tell harrowing stories of rape and abuse. They are traumatised and
require medical treatment and counselling. These girls are testament to the
horrifying truth about the kidnapping,” the negotiator stated.
Davis made a strong case for action against Boko
Haram sponsors to end insurgency in the North-east.
He also recounted his encounter with Dokubo at the
peak of the Niger-Delta militancy during the Obasanjo administration, leading
to a truce between the militants and
security forces. Read Stephen Davis’ piece here.
Chibok: FG, Boko Haram in swap deal
Meanwhile, a report, yesterday, said government officials and the International
Committee of the Red Cross had talks
with Boko Haram about swapping prisoners of the Islamist terror group for
the Chibok school girls kidnapped in
April.
CNN, quoting a source involved in the negotiations,
said officials met four times in
mid-August with two senior members of Boko Haram in Abuja.
The swap would involve the release of 30 Boko Haram
commanders in the custody of government,
according to the source, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of
the issue.
Boko Haram reportedly submitted a list with the
names of 30 members who were either convicted or awaiting trial on terror
offenses.
“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.
But this claim is disputed by Davis.
The terror group was said to have expressed a
willingness for a swap with the ICRC at an undisclosed location, according to
the source. But there was disagreement on some terms, including the number of
girls involved in the swap.
Boko Haram, it was learnt, insisted on an even swap
— 30 girls for 30 commanders — but the government refused.
“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.
Australian negotiator, Dr. Stephen Davis, and Boko
Haram commanders in 2013 after BH reportedly agreed to dialogue
Australian negotiator, Dr. Stephen Davis, and Boko
Haram commanders in 2013 after BH reportedly agreed to dialogue
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
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 government after consulting with their superiors.
ICRC sources declined to comment.
Source: Vanguard
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