NIGERIA KNOWS THE LOCATION OF MISSING GIRLS

Air Marshal Alex Badeh, center, Nigeria's chief of defense staff, speaks in Abuja during a demonstration calling on the government to rescue the schoolgirls held by the militant group Boko Haram. (Gbenga Olamikan / Associated Press)

Nigeria's military says it knows where kidnapped girls are...Nigeria reportedly in secret talks with Boko Haram for release of schoolgirls..Nigerian official on kidnapped girls: 'We know where they are, but we cannot tell you'

"We can't go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back," he said after demonstrators marched to military headquarters in Abuja, the capital, a few days after trying to march to President Goodluck Jonathan's office. He met demonstrators and spoke to journalists.

Badeh offered no information as to how the military planned to recover the girls, other than to rule out force.

"We want our girls back. I can tell you we can do it. Our military can do it. But where they are held, can we go with force?" FULL STORY HERE

BOKO HARUM TO BEGIN RELEASE OF KIDNAPPED GIRLS!

 

By Colin Freeman

3:00PM BST 18 May 2014

TELEGRAPH

Boko Haram has dropped demands for the release of top commanders in talks with the Nigerian government and is prepared to start releasing up to half its kidnapped schoolgirls in coming days, sources close to the group have said.

The militant Islamist group, which kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls a month ago, is willing to conduct a "gradual" release of its hostages in return for the release of Boko Haram prisoners in Nigerian jails, it was claimed.

In a significant concession, the group has abandoned demands for its top commanders to be released, seemingly aware that this would be politically impossible for the Nigerian government. FULL STORY HERE

NIGERIAN EXTREMIST NAMES HIS RANSOM DEMANDS

By MICHELLE FAUL and SUNDAY ALAMBA
Associated Press

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- A Nigerian Islamic extremist leader says nearly 300 abducted schoolgirls will not be seen again until the government frees his detained fighters.

A new video from Nigeria's homegrown Boko Haram terrorist network received Monday purports to show some of the girls and young women chanting Quranic verses in Arabic. The barefoot girls look frightened and sad and sit huddled together wearing gray Muslim veils. Some Christians among them say they have converted to Islam.

It is the first video evidence of the girls and young women since more than 300 were kidnapped from a northeastern school in the pre-dawn hours of April 15 - four weeks ago.

READ FULL STORY

US TEAM HEADED TO NIGERIA TO FIND KIDNAPPED GIRLS

The White House will send a team to Nigeria to aid in the search for nearly 300 kidnapped teenage girls, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday in an interview with ABC News.

See also: Bring Back Our Girls: Why the World Is Finally Talking About Nigeria's Kidnapped Students

"We’ve already sent in a team," Obama said, adding that the Nigerian government has "accepted our help." That team consists of a combination of military, law enforcement and "other agencies" who will try and identify where in fact these girls might be and to provide them help, the president said, calling it a "heartbreaking" and "outrageous" situation.

WHO ARE THE GROUP BEHIND THE KIDNAPPING?