It has been reported that members of the Boko Haram have come into contact with the Nigerian government for negotiations. The representatives from the terrorist group have proposed several times to release some of the kidnapped schoolgirls in exchange for some prisoners held by the government. However, it is reported that the administration had already rejected the offer several times.
Although the global community as well as Christian human rights organizations are monitoring the situation in Nigeria with great tension, some experts expressed the view that there is still hope amidst the crisis; for the fact that Boko Haram had made the proposal meant that it is likely that the 200 or so schoolgirls are still together and not yet scattered across the country.
Not everyone is as optimistic about the situation however. "We can safely assume that the abducted girls have been raped by their captors, if not worse," Rona Peligal, deputy director for the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, said last week. Peligal even explained that the girls who return home after the crisis will be suffering from post-traumatic stress and stigmatized.
BBC News reported that the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan had rejected Boko Haram’s offer. The Interior Minister, Abba Moro, expressed that the terrorist group was in no moral position to make such an offer in the first place.
The U.S. Department of State had already made an offer to dispatch military and intelligence personnel to Nigeria in order to search and rescue the abducted schoolgirls. President Jonathan of Nigeria was reported to have accepted the proposal.
Boko Haram has a notorious reputation for violently warring against the Nigerian government and also the Christian population. They are known to have shot Christians to death and had blown up churches taking away thousands of lives.
