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 The accord mediated by Chad for the release of the girls seized
from Chibok in northeast Nigeria in April has been called into
question since it was announced by the Nigerian military last week.
A ceasefire supposed to be part of the agreement has been broken,
and a further 25 girls were abducted this week.
Moussa Mahamat Dago, the No. 2 official at Chad's foreign ministry,
said it appeared some Boko Haram factions were refusing to abide by
the deal, brokered by the Chadian foreign minister with two
representatives of the Islamist group and two Nigerian negotiators
at meetings in Chad on Sept. 14 and 30.
"Quite possibly those who are fighting are dissidents that even they
(Boko Haram) aren't able to control. So far, there is no reason for
others to doubt this agreement," Dago told Reuters late on Thursday
in the Chadian capital N'Djamena.
"What I can say is that those that negotiated with the Nigerian
government did so in good faith ... We are waiting for the next
phase which is the release of the girls."
Dago said the two sides agreed verbally to a series of points
summarized in a document he had seen, including the release of the
schoolgirls and of jailed Boko Haram fighters.
The Nigerian insurgent group, which has fought a bloody five-year
revolt mostly in the northeast, has said it wants to carve out an
Islamist enclave in the religiously-mixed nation, Africa's top oil
producer and biggest economy.
"The starting condition of Boko Haram was the liberation of some of
their members ... That is the compensation," Dago said, adding that
the specifics on the names and number of Boko Haram fighters still
to be released had not yet been agreed.
Dago said he still expected the girls to be freed, without giving a
time frame. The Boko Haram negotiators were no longer in Chad
although they had agreed to return in October after freeing the
girls to hold more talks, he added.
The first stage of the agreement made was the release of a group of
27 Chinese and Cameroonian hostages by Boko Haram two weeks ago in
northern Cameroon, Dago said. [ID:nnL6N0S603O]
"We remain optimistic. The two sides agreed to find a negotiated
solution and to show their good faith they already freed some
hostages and announced a ceasefire," he said.
Dago admitted it would be embarrassing for Chadian President Idriss
Deby's government, which has taken a leading role in security and
diplomacy in Africa's turbulent Sahel region in recent years, if the
girls were not freed.
"It would be very disappointing. We are engaged in this now. If this
negotiation doesn't succeed that would be damaging for Chad's
facilitating role," he said.
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COMING NIGERIA ELECTION
The release of the girls would be a boost for Nigerian President
Goodluck Jonathan, who faces an election in February and has been
pilloried at home and abroad for his slow response to the kidnapping
and his inability to quell the insurgency.
Boko Haram has not yet commented on the ceasefire. Its fighters have
killed thousands of people in raids mostly in Nigeria's northeast
but have also claimed sporadic bomb attacks in the federal capital
Abuja and the commercial hub Lagos.
Dago said he was confident that the negotiators had the authority to
speak on behalf of Boko Haram's mercurial and reclusive leader
Abubakar Shekau, whom Nigeria's military has more than once claimed
to have killed.
"They are envoys who answer to their leader Shekau who himself
confirmed that these emissaries spoke on his behalf. That was
confirmed in writing to the Chadian government," he said, confirming
local press reports that the negotiators were named Cheikh Goni
Hassane and Cheikh Boukar Umarou.
Chad does not know where the abducted Chibok girls are being held,
but Dago said it was likely they were outside of Chad and spread out
over a wide area.
The Chinese hostages freed earlier under the agreement were found
scattered across northern Cameroon, he said.
"They (Boko Haram) gave us guarantees that the girls are well but we
don't know physically where they are," he said.
"But they have certainly dispersed them like the Chinese hostages,
who were spread out over a large area."
The two parties planned to meet again for a third time in Chad after
the release of the schoolgirls to draft a roadmap to tackle more
fundamental issues, Dago said.
"For the next stage of negotiations, the girls need to be freed. We
cannot go into details as long as this question remains and it is a
requirement of Chad that the girls are released before we start the
next stage of talks," he said.
(Editing by Daniel Flynn/Pascal Fletcher and Philippa Fletcher)
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