There’s no dancing in the streets, but people in the hometown of more than 200 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls are cautiously optimistic about news of a ceasefire with the Islamic extremists who abducted their daughters six months ago.
“We don’t know how true it is until we prove it,” said Bana Lawan, chairman of Chibok Local Government Area. “We will know the negotiations were successful when we see the girls physically. And then we will know it is true. And then we will celebrate.” Community leader Pogu Bitrus says “people rejoiced, but with caution”.
Both men said residents have been disappointed too many times in the past by reports of progress by Nigeria’s government and military that later proved to be false. That is why they are sceptical of the army’s announcement on Friday that Boko Haram extremists have agreed to an immediate ceasefire.
Some reports said the truce includes an agreement to free the girls missing from Chibok town. But government spokesman Mike Omeri would say only that authorities are “inching closer to the release of the Chibok girls”.
On Friday, French President Francois Hollande welcomed the “good news” and told a news conference in Paris that the girls’ release “could happen in the coming hours and days”. France has been involved in negotiations that led to the release of several of its citizens kidnapped by Boko Haram in Cameroon.
Neither Mr. Hollande nor Nigerian government officials gave any details. There was no immediate word from Boko Haram, which limits its public engagement to video announcements by its leader, Abubakar Shekau. Last year, when a government minister announced an agreement, Shekau quickly denied it. He said at that time that whoever the government negotiated with did not speak for him, and that he would never talk to “infidels”.
Chibok community leader Mr. Bitrus told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, “We are waiting, hoping that it is really true and that the people who negotiated on Boko Haram’s side, that they are the genuine leaders.”
“Sometimes these people, they will say something and they will not act,” said Mr. Lawan, speaking from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital in the northeast. “We just pray that this is true.”
