IRAN READY TO HELP NIGERIA OVER ABDUCTED GIRLS

Teheran, 21 Rajab 1435/20 May 2014 (MINA) – Iran has offered to help Nigeria resolve the issue of the abduction of nearly 300 female students in the African country by the Boko Haram group.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks at a Monday meeting in Tehran with Nigerian Ambassador to the Islamic Republic Tukur Mani, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Mani, for his part, extended Nigeria’s gratitude to Iran for sympathizing with the African government and nation as well as condemning the abducting act.

On April 14, Boko Haram abducted nearly 300 students from their secondary school in the northeastern town of Chibok.

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The Nigerian government has been under intense pressure by many groups of people around the globe, the girls’ families in particular, to secure their release.

Boko Haram — whose name means “Western education is forbidden” — says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government.

It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly gun and bomb attacks in various parts of Nigeria since 2009.

Nigeria’s embattled leader vowed Boko Haram’s abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls would be the terror group’s undoing, even as authorities admitted the girls likely have been separated and taken out of the country.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s statements come amid mounting international outrage over the mass abduction and the government’s largely ineffective effort to subdue Boko Haram.

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I believe the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end for terror in Nigeria,” Jonathan said at the opening of the World Economic Forum meeting in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja.

He also acknowledged the offers of help from the United States, Britain, China and France, all of which have offered help in the weeks-old search for the girls who were snatched in mid-April from their beds at an all-girls school in rural northeastern Nigeria.(T/Fauziah/P03/P04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)