US and Britain have offered military support to find over 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist group Boko Haram
Brig Gen Chris Olukolade, Nigeria's top military spokesman, speaks to people at a demonstration calling on the government to rescue the kidnapped schoolgirls. Photograph: Sunday Alamba/AP
Wednesday 7 May 2014
Police in Nigeria have offered a $300,000 (£177,000) cash reward for credible information leading to the rescue of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by the Islamist group Boko Haram.
The call for help follows the US and Britain offering military and technical support to Nigeria to hunt down the group, which abducted a second group of schoolgirls on Monday, as Barack Obama led a mounting international outcry.
A statement from the Nigerian police high command said anyone who "volunteers credible information that will lead to the location and rescue of the female students" was eligible for the 50m naira reward. It said "any information given would be treated anonymously and with utmost confidentiality".
Boko Haram is holding 257 girls from a raid on a school on 15 April and a further eight, aged between eight and 15, taken in an overnight raid on a village in the sect's stronghold in north-eastern Borno state on Monday.
"In the short term our goal is obviously to help the international community, and the Nigerian government, as a team to do everything we can to recover these young ladies," Obama told NBC on Tuesday night. "But we're also going to have to deal with the broader problem of organisations like this that ... can cause such havoc in people's day-to-day lives."
Obama said the US was doing its utmost to help resolve the "terrible situation" but stopped short of offering to send troops – in contrast to Britain, which is prepared to send special forces and intelligence gathering aircraft.
The offers from Washington and London follow widespread criticism of the Nigerian government's perceived sluggish response to the crisis. Relatives of the girls have protested in the capital, Abuja.
Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, has threatened to sell the captives into slavery and said militants would attack more schools and abduct more girls. The group's name means "Western education is sinful". In a separate atrocity this week militants reportedly shot at least 52 people in a remote village.
The United Nations warned that any parties participating in the buying or selling of the schoolgirls could face prosecution under international law. "We warn the perpetrators that there is an absolute prohibition against slavery and sexual slavery in international law," said UN rights spokesperson Rupert Colville. "So just because they think they are safe now, they won't necessarily be in two years, five years or 10 years' time."
