Nigeria rejects Boko Haram prisoner swap for hostage girls
Nigeria today rejected conditions set out by Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau for the release of more than 200 schoolgirls held hostage by the Islamists. Asked if the government would reject the suggestion by Shekau in a new video that the girls may be released once Nigeria frees all militant prisoners, Interior Minister Abba Moro told AFP: “Of course.” “The issue in question is not about Boko Haram... giving conditions,” he said. Shekau made the claim in a video obtained by AFP today claiming to show about 130 of the 276 girls abducted from their school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok, in Borno state, on April 14. “We will never release them (the girls) until after you release our brethren,” he said. The militant leader, who has made prisoner exchange demands before, said that some of the teenagers had converted from Christianity to Islam. The International Crisis Group said in a report published last month that Boko Haram had written an open letter in...