Boko Haram Abducts More Nigerian School Girls

Published October 28, 2014 at 12:40 PM CDT

People demonstrate calling on the Nigerian government to rescue girls taken from a secondary school in Chibok region, in the city of Abuja, Nigeria . Days after Nigeria's military raised hopes by announcing Islamic extremists have agreed to a cease-fire, Boko Haram is still fighting and there is no word about 219 schoolgirls held hostage for six months. Officials had said talks with Nigeria's Islamic extremist rebels would resume in neighboring Chad this week, but there was no confirmation that negotiations had resumed by Wednesday. (AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga File)

Recent headlines out of West Africa have been flooded with the news of the Ebola outbreak, shifting the attention away from the social media campaign #BringBackOurGirls, aimed at rescuing nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by the Islamist group Boko Haram.

On Friday, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister said that negotiations to get the girls back were underway and that their release was imminent.

But over the weekend there were reports that at least 30 more girls had been abducted despite the negotiations and a reported ceasefire.

Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson talks to John Campbell, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and a senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Affairs, about the current situation of the missing school girls.

Guest

John Campbell, served as U.S. ambassador to Nigeria from 2004 to 2007. He is a senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He’s author of “Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink,” writes the blog “Africa in Transition” and edits the Nigeria Security Tracker. He tweets @JohnCampbellcfr.