Nigeria in talks to secure release of more Chibok girls, official says

Nigerian authorities are involved in negotiations aimed at securing the release of some of the more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok, the president’s spokesman said on Thursday.

Nigerian authorities are involved in negotiations aimed at securing the release of some of the more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok, the president’s spokesman said on Thursday.

Spokesman’s comments, posted on Twitter, came in response to reports in Nigeria’s media that some of the girls had been released by the terrorist group, which he said were untrue.

“The negotiations are ongoing and the Department of State Service, DSS is full of optimism that they will be successful,” GarbaShehu, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari, said in a tweet.

Around 270 girls were taken in April 2014 from their school in Chibok, Borno state, where Boko Haram has waged a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating a so-called Islamic state, killing more than 15,000 people and displacing over two million.