Deal To Free Abducted Chibok Girls Still On, Chad Official Says

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The Chadian government has confirmed that Nigeria’s deal with the Boko Haram sect to free the schoolgirls would still go ahead despite the breakdown of a truce.

A very senior official, Chad’s foreign ministry, Moussa Dago, who spoke with Reuters on Friday, said that the key to the agreement would be a prisoner swap.

He said it appeared some Boko Haram factions were refusing to abide by the deal.

Dago said, “Quite possibly, those who are fighting are dissidents that even Boko Haram isn’t able to control. So far, there is no reason for others to doubt this agreement.

“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 he was confident that the negotiators had the authority to speak on behalf of Boko Haram’s reclusive leader, Abubakar Shekau, who has allegedly been killed by the Nigerian military more than once.

“They are envoys who answer to their leader Shekau, who himself confirmed that these emissaries spoke on his behalf. That was confirmed in writing to the Chadian government,” he said, confirming local press reports that the negotiators were named Sheikh Goni Hassane and Sheikh Boukar Umarou.

Dago admitted that it would be embarrassing for the Chadian President Idriss Deby’s government, which has played a lead role in 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 to Chad’s facilitating role,” he said.

Dago told Reuters that 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.

Dago said, “The starting condition of Boko Haram was the liberation of some of their members; that is the compensation.”

He added that the specifics on the names and number of Boko Haram fighters still to be released had not yet been agreed.

He said he still expected the girls to be freed but he stated that the Boko Haram negotiators were no longer in Chad even though they had agreed to return in October after freeing the girls to hold more talks.

“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,” he said.

According to him, Chad does not know where the abducted Chibok girls are being held, but Dago said it was likely they were outside of Chad and spread out over a wide area.

“The Chinese hostages freed earlier under the agreement were found scattered across northern Cameroon,” he said.

“They (Boko Haram) gave us guarantees that the girls are well but we don’t know physically where they are,” he said.

“But they have certainly dispersed them like the Chinese hostages, who were spread out over a large area.”

He explained that the two parties planned to meet again for a third time in Chad after the release of the schoolgirls to draft a road map to tackle more fundamental issues.

He said, “For the next stage of negotiations, the girls need to be freed. We cannot go into details as long as this question remains and it is a requirement of Chad that the girls are released before we start the next stage of talks.”