The Islamist militant group Boko Haram claimed
responsibility on Monday for the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in
northeast Nigeria last month and threatened to "sell them on the
market", the French news agency AFP reported, citing a video.
Boko Haram on April 14 stormed an all-girl secondary school
in the village of Chibok, in Borno state, then packed the teenagers, who had
been taking exams, onto trucks and disappeared into a remote area along the
border with Cameroon.
The brazenness and sheer brutality of the school attack
shocked Nigerians, who have been growing accustomed to hearing about atrocities
in an increasingly bloody five-year-old Islamist insurgency in the north.
"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market,
by Allah," Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in the video, according
to AFP, which is normally the first media outlet to get hold of Shekau's
videos.
It did not immediately give further details.
Boko Haram, now seen as the main security threat to Africa's
leading energy producer, is growing bolder and extending its reach. The
kidnapping occurred on the same day as a bomb blast, also blamed on Boko Haram,
that killed 75 people on the edge of Abuja and marked the first attack on the
capital in two years.
The militants, who say they are fighting to reinstate a
mediaeval Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, repeated that bomb attack more
than two weeks later in almost exactly the same spot, killing 19 people and
wounding 34 in the suburb of Nyanya.
The girls' abductions have been hugely embarrassing for the
government and threaten to completely overshadow its first hosting of the World
Economic Forum (WEF) for Africa on May 7-9.
Nigerian officials had hoped the event would highlight their
country's potential as an investment destination since it became Africa's
biggest economy after a GDP recalculation in March.
Protester arrested
The apparent powerlessness of the military to prevent the
attack or find the girls in three weeks has triggered anger and protests in the
northeast and in Abuja.
On Sunday, authorities arrested a leader of a protest staged
last week in Abuja that had called on them to do more to find the girls. The
arrest has further fuelled outrage against the security forces.
Naomi Mutah Nyadar was picked up by police after a meeting
she and other campaigners had held with President Goodluck Jonathan's wife,
Patience, concerning the girls.
Nyadar was taken to Asokoro police station, near the
presidential villa, said fellow protester Lawan Abana, whose two nieces are
among the abductees.
Police were not immediately available to comment on the incident,
but a presidency source said Nyadar had been detained because she had falsely
claimed to be the mother of one of the missing girls. Abana said she had made
no such claim.
In a statement, Patience Jonathan denied local media reports
that she had ordered Nyadar's arrest but urged the protesters in Abuja to go
home, the state-owned News Agency of Nigeria said.
"You are playing games. Don't use school children and
women for demonstrations again. Keep it to Borno, let it end there," the
agency quoted her as saying.
More protests are planned from 3 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Monday.
These could become a major headache for the government if they continue and
coincide with the WEF event, where security arrangements will involve some
6,000 army troops.
No comments:
Post a Comment