Nigeria admits Chibok girls swap deal failure; 38 militants killed in Niger

PanARMENIAN.Net - Nigeria opened negotiations with Boko Haram over the release of the kidnapped Chibok girls last year, but the talks were derailed due to a split in the extremist group, a minister said Friday, September 16, AFP reports.

Speaking at a press conference in the capital Abuja, information minister Lai Mohammed said the Department of State Services (DSS) started negotiations with the Islamists in July 2015.

In exchange for the girls, who were kidnapped in April 2014 from a school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok, Boko Haram demanded the release of some of its fighters.

Out of the 276 girls kidnapped, scores escaped in the hours after the kidnapping, while another was rescued earlier this year.

Mohammed said that by August 2015 the government was close to clinching the swap deal when Boko Haram issued a new set of demands.

"This development stalled what would have been the first release process of the Chibok girls," Mohammed said.

Mohammed said Nigeria was committed to rescuing the remaining 218 Chibok girls still held captive by Boko Haram, who have killed at least 20,000 people in northeast Nigeria in a wave of raids, suicide attacks and bombings since 2009, AFP says.

Meanwhile, thirty-eight Boko Haram Islamist fighters have been killed during military search operations carried out by Niger and Chad troops in the Diffa region of southeast Niger this week, an official said Friday, AFP reports.

Two soldiers were lightly wounded in the action and "on the enemy side; 38 terrorists killed," Niger defence ministry spokesman Moustapha Ledru said on state television.

Substantial quantities of weapons and munitions were also seized, Colonel Ledru added.