Manned US aircraft were flying over Nigeria yesterday, searching for more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram after Abuja dismissed a prisoner-swap offer from the Islamist extremist group.
“We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] assets over Nigeria with the government’s permission,” a senior US official said on Monday.
The official declined to be named and it was not immediately clear what kind of aircraft were being deployed, nor where they are based.
Photo: AFP / BOKO HARAM
In a video obtained by media on Monday, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said the girls would only be released if Abuja frees militant fighters it has in custody.
Shekau made the claim in a 27-minute video, which apparently shows about 130 of the teenagers snatched from their school in Chibok nearly a month ago.
The video shows the girls in black and gray full-length hijabs, sitting on scrubland near trees.
Three of them are shown being interviewed, with two saying that they have converted from Christianity to Islam and another saying she is Muslim. All three pronounced their belief in Islam dispassionately to the camera, sometimes looking down and seeming to be under duress.
Most of the group behind them were seated cross-legged on the ground. The girls appeared calm and one said they had not been harmed.
Speaking in his native Hausa language as well as Arabic, Shekau restated his claim of responsibility for the kidnappings and said the girls were converting to Islam.
“These girls, these girls you occupy yourselves with ... we have indeed liberated them. These girls have become Muslims,” he said. “There are still others who have not converted and are holding on to your belief. There are many of them. Only Allah knows how many women we are holding, the infidels who Allah commands us to hold.”
“We will never release them [the girls] until after you release our brethren,” the militant leader added.
Asked if the government would reject Shekau’s proposal, Nigerian Minister of the Interior Abba Moro yesterday responded: “Of course.”
The mother of one of the abductees identified her daughter in the video, said Dumoma Mpur, parent-teachers association chairman at the Government Girls’ Secondary School in Chibok that the girls were taken from.
The mother watched the video on TV on Monday evening and saw her daughter among the girls sitting on the ground wearing veils.
A total of 276 students were abducted on April 14 from Chibok and police say 223 are still missing.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to