Two hundred Boko Haram militants surrender

25 settembre 2015

1 min di lettura

(AGI) Rome, Sept 25 - Around 200 militants of the Boko HaramIslamist group have laid down their weapons and surrendered toNigerian forces in the village of Banki on the border withCameroon, the Nigerian Army reported to the BBC. It is thelargest en masse surrender so far. The news has not yet beenconfirmed by independent sources, and some parties are awaitingproof that it was truly militants that surrendered and notcivilians trapped in the village, which was recently seized.Meanwhile, the U.S. announced that they will give up to 45million dollars in aid to the defence forces of Nigeria,Cameroon, Chad, and Niger to fight the Islamist group. Thedecision was announced by the spokesman for the NationalSecurity Council at the White House, Ned Price, who added thatthe plan also includes training for local military personnel.According to Unicef, an escalation of Boko Haram attacks overthe last 5 months has forced 500,000 children to flee theirhomes, bringing the number of displaced children innortheastern Nigeria and neighbouring countries to 1.4 million.Approximately 1.2 million of these - with over half under theage of 5 - come from northern Nigeria alone, while theremaining 265,000 children fled from Cameroon, Chad and Niger.Boko Haram terrorists declared last week that they have grownweary of fighting and proposed negotiations for them to laydown their arms without any monetary recompense. Before that,Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari offered Boko Haram a chancefor peace while on state visit to France, asking the terroristgroup to release over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in Chibok onApril 15 of 2014.. .