Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan will on Friday visit the northeastern village from where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted a month ago by Islamist rebel group Boko Haram, senior government officials said.
It will be Jonathan’s first visit since the kidnappings to Chibok village, epicentre of a growing international effort to rescue the girls. Officials said he will travel on to a regional security summit in Paris at which Boko Haram will be discussed.
Jonathan is under pressure to crush the rebels, who have killed thousands in their campaign for an Islamist state, and to free the girls, whose kidnapping has sparked global outrage.
The Nigerian government has come under criticism for its slow response to the abductions.
Jonathan asked France last week to arrange a Paris security summit with neighbours Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin, and officials from the U.S., Britain and the European Union to discuss a coordinated response.
Source: Reuters