Nigeria’s president vowed Thursday to defeat terrorism in his country, suggesting that the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls marked a turning point in his country's battle against Islamist extremists.
In an address to the World Economic Forum in Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan also thanked the U.S., U.K. and China for their pledges of assistance to track down the girls, whose abductions have sparked international outrage.
"By god's grace we will conquer the terrorists," he told the audience. “I believe that the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end of terror in Nigeria.”
PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP - GETTY IMAGES
Boko Haram, an extremist Islamist group, has claimed responsibility for kidnapping the girls weeks ago from their school in the northeastern village of Chibok.
The group - whose name, roughtly translated, means “Western education is sinful” - has been waging a bloody campaign in northeast Nigeria for years, destroying churches, kidnapping scores of people and burning down schools, sometimes with the students locked inside.
Boko Haram also is believed to be behind an attack earlier this week in northeastern Nigeria's market town of Gamburu which left at least 300 people dead.
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