The #BringBackOurGirls has expressed hope that the abducted Chibok girls may be released soon after the government of 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.
The group, which wondered why it took the government of Chad one week to respond, noted that the most important thing was the return of the girls.
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.
