Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, in Paris for talks with President François Hollande, told FRANCE 24 in an exclusive interview that he wants to negotiate with Boko Haram for the release of the 219 kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.
Buhari told FRANCE 24’s François Picard that plans to negotiate for their release remained confidential, but were hampered “because no one can be sure who is the genuine leader of Boko Haram”.
Boko Haram fighters stormed a school in the remote northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok on the evening of April 14 last year, seizing 276 girls who were preparing for end-of-year exams.
Fifty-seven of the girls escaped but nothing has been heard of the 219 others since May last year, when about 100 of them appeared in a Boko Haram propaganda video, dressed in Muslim attire and reciting the Koran.