Abducted Chibok girls seen in Central Africa
Category: Boko Haram News
As reported by The Punch:
There are strong indications that the
terrorist sect, Boko Haram, may have moved some of the over 200
schoolgirls it abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno
State out of West Africa.
There were reports on Friday that some of
the abducted schoolgirls were seen in Birao, Central African Republic
with armed men. Birao is a small town in the north of the CAR.
The Islamic sect had abducted pupils of
the school on April 14 and taken them into the forests along the
Nigeria-Cameroon border.
Over 50 of the pupils escaped while being moved out of the school.
An online report by a French news medium, Jeune Afrique, on Friday, said villagers saw about 50 young women led by armed men in the North Central African Republic last week.
The report was translated into English by one of our correspondents.
The report says, “The Nigerian
schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram have passed through the northern CAR,
escorted by armed men. Based on several testimonies of inhabitants, the
women arrived Wednesday, April 30 aboard trucks.
“They were guarded by heavily armed men, who spoke English, and also members of the former (CAR)
Seleka is an alliance of Islamic rebel
militia factions that overthrew the Central African Republic government
early last year and installed their leader as president. The group which
has reportedly carried out several executions, rape and looting split
last year with Christian and Muslim factions terrorising the CAR,
forcing France to send more troops to the region.
The French newspaper added that natives of Birao were afraid to approach the kidnapped girls.
“According to our source, the convoy of
two trucks and a pickup was previously seen at Tiroungoulou (about 170
kilometres southwest of Birao) and perhaps Chad.
“Upon arrival, some were frightened,
cried and were violently rebuked in English. The girls and their
guardians were then housed for several days in a house.
“The group reportedly left the scene on the night of Sunday to Monday, May 4 to 5, without a trace,” the report said.
Barely 24 hours after President Goodluck
Jonathan said no group had claimed responsibility for the abduction of
the pupils, Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, claimed responsibility
for the abduction.
Shekau, while claiming responsibility for
the seizure of the girls in a video, threatened to sell the abducted
girls. “I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by
Allah,” he said.
Earlier, there were reports that the girls were taken to neighbouring Cameroon and Chad.
The Cameroonian government however faulted reports that some of the teenagers had been married off in the country.
Cameroon’s Minister of Communication,
Issa Tchiroma Bakari, was quoted as saying he was shocked by accusations
that Cameroon was not collaborating with Nigeria to free the girls from
their captors.
“We insist that allegations from Nigeria
that a part of the 200 young female students recently kidnapped in the
North-East of Nigeria would have been transferred to Cameroon to be
forced into marriage to members of the Boko Haram sect are fully
unfounded.
“Cameroon will never ever serve as a
support base for destabilisation activities towards other countries,” he
was quoted as saying.
The Unites States, Britain, France and
China have, however, expressed their readiness to assist Nigeria in
rescuing the girls. The US and British military personnel and hardware
arrived in the country between Thursday and Friday.
One of our correspondents in Abuja also
gathered that the Federal Government would engage Israel in the search
for the abducted girls.
SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that the
Federal Government and Israeli authorities had held a series of meetings
since the girls were abducted on April 14.
A security source said on Friday that the
collaborative efforts between Israel and Nigeria on the issue of
terrorism and insurgency had been ongoing for some time.
The source who pleaded anonymity said,
“The issue of collaboration with Israeli and other countries did not
start now, a lot of meetings have been held on insurgency.”
When contacted on Friday, the Press
Officer of the Israeli Embassy in Nigeria, Mr. Tony Obiechina, said the
embassy had closed for the day and could not respond to the issue.
He said, “We have closed. I will have to meet with the ambassador on Monday to see if there is any information on your request.”
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