Vigilante groups have been
springing up in north Nigeria over the past year amid accusations the
military is not acting fast enough against the Islamic extremists who
are holding captive more than 270 schoolgirls.
In
Kalabalge, a village about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Borno
state capital of Maiduguri, where the terrorist network was born,
residents said they took matters into their own hands.
On
Tuesday morning, after learning about an impending attack by the
militants, villagers ambushed two trucks with gunmen, residents and a
security official told The Associated Press. At least 10 militants were
detained, and scores were killed, the official said, speaking on
condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give interviews
to journalists. It was not immediately clear where the detainees were
being held.
Kalabalge trader
Ajid Musa said that after residents organized the vigilante group, "it
is impossible" for militants to successfully stage attacks there.
"That
is why most attacks by the Boko Haram on our village continued (to)
fail because they cannot come in here and start shooting and killing
people," he said. Earlier this year in other parts of Borno, extremists
launched more attacks in what some feared was retaliation over the
vigilante groups.
Borno is where more than
300 girls were abducted last month and one of three Nigerian states
where President Goodluck Jonathan has imposed a state of emergency,
giving the military special powers to fight the Islamic extremist group,
whose stronghold is in northeast Nigeria.
Britain
and the U.S. are now actively involved in the effort to rescue the
missing girls. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said FBI agents and a
hostage negotiating team are in Nigeria now, providing technology and
other materials and working with "our Nigerian counterparts to be as
helpful as we possibly can." U.S. reconnaissance aircraft are flying
over Nigeria in search of the missing girls.
The
group kidnapped the girls on April 15 from a school in Chibok. At least
276 of them are still held captive, with the group's leader threatening
to sell them into slavery. In a video released on Monday, he offered to
release the girls in exchange for the freedom of jailed Boko Haram
members.
A Nigerian government official has said "all options" are
now open — including negotiations or a possible military operation with
foreign help — in efforts find the missing girls.
Nigerians
dressed in red shirts and holding banners that read #BringBackOurGirls
marched on the streets of Abuja, the capital, Tuesday toward the
governor's lodge, calling for more to be done to secure the release of
the students.
Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima addressed the crowd after
having been in Maiduguri, watching the video with parents and teachers
who traveled there to identify their daughters or students.
"They were able to identify 54 students by name," he said, adding that he had also given the military reports of sightings by villagers of the girls in the countryside.
"How do we get back our girls alive, let us not derail from that focus," he said.
Jonathan this week sought to extend the state of emergency for six more months in the states of Yobe, Adamawa and Borno.
That move is being opposed by some leaders in northern Nigeria who say the emergency measure has brought no success. Yobe Governor Ibrahim Gaidam said in a statement received Wednesday that the state of emergency period has been "marked more by failure than by success."
The measure was imposed May 14, 2013, and extended in December.
During this period Nigerian government forces have been accused of committing rights abuses, charges denied by the military, and the threat from Boko Haram has appeared to intensify. The rights group Amnesty International says Nigeria's military had advance warning of a possible Boko Haram attack before the April 15 kidnappings in Chibok but did not react because of their fear of engaging the extremists.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the top State Department official for Africa, said in a web chat Wednesday that "part of our work with the (Nigerian) government is to help train members of their security how not to commit human rights violations."
The Pentagon said Wednesday the U.S. is using surveillance drones to aid in the search for the kidnapped Nigerian girls, and almost 300 Marines have been moved to a naval air station in Sicily in response to the growing unrest in Africa. A senior U.S. official says at least one Global Hawk surveillance drone is in use, in addition to manned MC-12 aircraft.
Boko Haram has killed more than 1,500 people this year. Although the security forces have forced the militants out of urban centers, they have struggled for months to dislodge them from hideouts in mountain caves and the Sambisa forest.
Last week, as world attention focused on the abducted schoolgirls, Islamic militants attacked the town of Gamboru, in Borno state, and killed at least 50 people, according to residents. A senator from the area has said up to 300 were killed in that attack.
President
Jonathan will meet with heads of state and representatives from Benin,
Chad, Niger and Cameroon this weekend in Paris to discuss the fight
against Boko Haram.
___
Adamu reported from Yobe, Nigeria.
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