MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Days after Nigeria's military raised hopes with the announcement that Islamic extremists had agreed to a cease-fire, Boko Haram still is fighting and there is no word on the fate of 219 schoolgirls held hostage for six months.
Officials had said talks would resume in neighboring Chad this week, but there was no confirmation that those negotiations had resumed by Wednesday.
The official silence raises many questions, especially since Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau has not confirmed that a truce has been agreed upon.
Relatives of the girls abducted from a boarding school in northeastern Chibok town said they are confused but trying to be hopeful.
Despite the cease-fire announced by the military on Friday, the Islamic insurgents have attacked two villages and a town in the northeast and raised their flag in a fourth village.
Read Thursday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.