Police post reward for missing Nigerian girls
Authorities offer $300,000 to anyone who can provide information on the whereabouts of more than 200 kidnapped girls.
Police in Nigeria are offering a $300,000 reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the rescue of more than 200 girls and women abducted from a school last month by armed group Boko Haram.
The announcement came on Wednesday, one day after reports surfaced that another eight girls had been seized from the same remote, northeast area by suspected members of the group.
“The Nigeria police hereby announce a cash reward of 50m naira to anyone who volunteers credible information that will lead to the location and rescue of the female students abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State,” the police said in a statement.
The police also released six phone numbers and urged Nigerians to call.
The mass kidnapping of girls and women abducted on April 14 triggered an international outcry and protests in Nigeria, putting pressure on the government to get the girls and women back.
Abubakar Shekau, a Boko Haram leader, threatened in a video to sell the girls who were taken from the secondary school in the village of Chibok “on the market”.
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| US joins search for missing Nigerian girls |
Nigerian leaders have accepted an offer by the US to send a team to the country to help search for the missing women and girls.
The US team consists of “military, law enforcement, and other agencies”, Obama said in an interview with US broadcaster ABC, and will work to “identify where in fact these girls might be and provide them help”.
Obama also denounced Boko Haram as “one of the worst regional or local terrorist organisations”.
“This may be the event that helps to mobilise the entire international community to finally do something against this horrendous organisation that’s perpetrated such a terrible crime,” he said.
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| Report claims multiple deaths in Nigeria’s Borno State |
Meanwhile, a Nigerian government official said “many people” were killed when fighters attacked a border town in the country’s northeast.
Mohammed Bulama, Borno state’s information commissioner, said on Wednesday that shops and homes were set ablaze in the Monday night attack on Gamboru Ngala, along Nigeria’s border with Cameroon.
He added that little information was available due to the remoteness of the area.
But the AP news agency said local newspapers reported that as many as 300 people were killed in the attack.