Nigerian police Wednesday offered a reward of 50 million naira (310,000 dollar) to anyone providing a lead on the whereabouts of the more than 200 school girls abducted by Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.
The teenage girls were abducted on April 14 from a boarding school in the town of Chibok, near Borno state capital Maiduguri in Nigeria’s north.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau threatened Monday to sell and enslave those girls. Some have escaped and an unknown number of others remain in captivity.
All Nigerians should aim to “be part of the solution to the present security challenge,” police spokesman Frank Mba said in a statement.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted an offer of help from the United States in tracking down and fighting the terrorists, US officials said.
While the search for the kidnapped girls continued, Boko Haram this week killed more than 200 people in a raid on a village in north-eastern Nigeria, and abducted 11 girls.
Gunmen in armoured vehicles, pick-up trucks and on motorcycles attacked the village of Gamboru in Borno State on Monday, but details about the attack only became public on Wednesday, local newspaper Daily Trust reported.
“People are still counting the dead bodies. They have counted over 200 and they have not finished yet,” said Abdulrahman Terab, a federal lawmaker from Gamboru.
Among the dead were 16 policemen.
“The (gunmen) destroyed the biggest market while some long vehicles, loaded with assorted goods for export have been burnt by the attackers,” said another resident, Abor Masa.
In a separate incident, 11 girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sinful,” from the village of Waranbe, in the Gwoza local government area in Borno State.
The UN Human Rights Office warned Boko Haram that its actions may be judged as crimes against humanity, a label for severe and systematic acts of violence.