Chad said it believed Nigeria’s secret deal with Boko Haram sect to free more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls would go ahead despite the breakdown of a truce and revealed that the key to the agreement was a prisoner swap.
The accord mediated by Chad for the release of the girls seized from Chibok, Borno in April has been called into question since it was announced by the Nigerian military last week, Reuters says.
A ceasefire supposed to be part of the agreement has been broken, and a further 25 girls were abducted this week.
Moussa Mahamat Dago, the No. 2 official at Chad’s foreign ministry, said it appeared some Boko Haram factions were refusing to abide by the deal, brokered by the Chadian foreign minister with two representatives of the sect and two Nigerian negotiators at meetings in Chad on September 14 and 30.
“Quite possibly those who are fighting are dissidents that even they (Boko Haram) aren’t able to control. So far, there is no reason for others to doubt this agreement,” Dago told Reuters late on Thursday in the Chadian capital N’Djamena.
“What I can say is that those that negotiated with the Nigerian government did so in good faith. We are waiting for the next phase which is the release of the girls.”
Dago said the two sides agreed verbally to a series of points summarised in a document he had seen, including the release of the schoolgirls and of jailed Boko Haram fighters.
The sect, which has fought a bloody five-year revolt mostly in the northeast, has said it wants to carve out an Islamist enclave in Nigeria.
“The starting condition of Boko Haram was the liberation of some of their members. That is the compensation,” he said, adding that the specifics on the names and number of Boko Haram fighters still to be released had not yet been agreed.
Dago said he still expected the girls to be freed, without giving a time frame.
The Boko Haram negotiators were no longer in Chad although they had agreed to return in October after freeing the girls to hold more talks, he added.
The first stage of the agreement made was the release of a group of 27 Chinese and Cameroonian hostages by Boko Haram two weeks ago in northern Cameroon, he told Reuters.
“We remain optimistic. The two sides agreed to find a negotiated solution and to show their good faith they already freed some hostages and announced a ceasefire,” the Chadian official added.
He admitted it would be embarrassing for Chadian President Idriss Deby’s government, which has taken a leading role in security and diplomacy in Africa’s turbulent Sahel region in recent years, if the girls were not freed.
“It would be very disappointing. We are engaged in this now. If this negotiation doesn’t succeed that would be damaging for Chad’s facilitating role,” he said.
...culled from THE NATION
0 comments :
Post a Comment
The 'Name/Url' option is advisable. You can fill in just 'Name' and ignore the 'url box'.