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Nigeria panel seeks talks with Boko Haram
President Goodluck Jonathan tasks committee to carry out negotiations with Islamist group and report back by mid-August.
The seven-man committee will be inaugurated on Tuesday, and is to be led by Usman Gaji Galtimari, a Borno civil servant who previously headed a committee that produced a report on a Boko Haram uprising in 2009.
Hundreds of people were killed during that period.
The committee will review security problems in the area and make recommendations for bringing a timely end to the crisis, a government statement said.
‘Brutalization of suspects’
Amnesty International says that the brutalisation of suspects by security forces in Borno, as well as unlawful arrests, killings and disappearances have become standard operating procedure in Maiduguri in the last few months.
The Nigerian security forces have earlier admitted that the police have been “overzealous” in the past.
Thousands fled the city earlier this month after clashes between Boko Haram fighters and the security forces intensified.
On Saturday, petrol station workers went on strike following the relocation of a fuel depot, prompting a further exodus.
Borno is located in the remote northeast of Nigeria, bordering Cameroon, Niger and Chad. It is one of the poorest regions in the country.
Boko Haram has not limited its attacks to Maiduguri in the past few months, striking as far afield as Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
Source: Agencies
