Abducted Chibok girls seen in Central Africa

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 school girls
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) rebel Seleka."

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 United 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."

Source: Punch