Vigilante Villagers Kill Scores of Boko Haram Militants in Ambush, as Nigeria Searches for Schoolgirls
Vigilante villager groups have reportedly killed scores of Boko Haram militants and arrested at least 10 in an ambush, while Nigeria continues looking for the nearly 270 schoolgirls abducted by the terrorist group.
The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that the ambush occurred at night when the vigilantes learned that Boko Haram was coming to the area. The exact number of those killed was not provided, but the Kalabalge villagers are said to have carried out the ambush to try and deter the militants from future attacks. Kalabalge is 155 miles away from the Borno state capital of Maiduguri.
"That is why most attacks by the Boko Haram on our village continued [to] fail because they cannot come in here and start shooting and killing people," trader Ajid Musa said.
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Boko Haram has killed thousands of people and waged war on the Nigerian government and the country's Christian population for close to five years now, shooting up churches and congregations and bombing state buildings.
The militants provoked international outrage when they kidnapped close to 270 schoolgirls from an all-girls school in Chibok, Borno State, last month, and announced that they would sell them as brides.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video showing the girls, whose location is not known, and asked to trade them for captured Islamic prisoners.
"It is now four years or five years that you arrested our brethren and they are still in your prison. You are doing many things to them and now you are talking about these girls? We will never release them until after you release our brethren," Shekau says in the video.
The Nigerian government has reportedly turned down the offer, however.
"As far as this government is concerned, the option of [the] swap of innocent citizens with people who have taken arms against the country ... is not on the table," Interior Minister Abba Moro said earlier this week.
Still, Foreign Office Minister Mark Simmonds said the government is willing to speak with the militants on reconciliation, The Daily Mail reported.
"The point that also was made very clear to me is that the president was keen to continue and facilitate ongoing dialogue to find a structure and architecture of delivering lasting solution to the conflict and the cause of conflict in northern Nigeria," Simmonds said.
While the Nigerian military has engaged in a number of clashes with Boko Haram over the past year, vigilante groups in north Nigeria have been rising up to fight back on their own, accusing the army of not acting fast enough to counter the militant attacks.
U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have both spoken out strongly against the kidnapping and called for the release of the female students. Britain and the U.S. have sent teams, including a reconnaissance aircraft, into Nigeria to help search for the girls.
Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima said that parents and teachers have been able to identify a number of the girls seen in the videos released by Boko Haram.
"They were able to identify 54 students by name," Shettima said. "How do we get back our girls alive, let us not derail from that focus."
