Abducted Nigeria Girls Taken to Islamist Stronghold, Ban Urges Their Immediate Release

The Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram were taken to a stronghold of the Islamist group, parents said on Wednesday, as the security forces pressed on with a search to find the hostages.

The defense ministry has confirmed that 129 girls were taken by gunmen in the northeastern state of Borno late Monday, just hours after a bomb ripped through a packed bus station on the outskirts of Abuja, killing 75 people, the deadliest attack ever in the capital.

The bombing was also blamed on Boko Haram, a group whose five-year extremist uprising has shaken Africa's most populous country and top economy.

Three girls who escaped and returned to Borno's Chibok area briefed locals about the attack at the home of the area's tribal chief on Wednesday, said Lawal Zanna, whose daughter was among those abducted.

"The girls told us they were taken to the Konduga district part of Sambisa forest by their captors," said Zanna, referring to an area where Boko Haram is known to have well-fortified camps.

His account was supported by two other Chibok residents who asked that their names be withheld.

The girls said they ran after getting permission from the gunmen to use the bathroom and were helped back to Chibok by nomadic herdsmen from the Fulani ethnic group.

"My daughter is not among the three lucky girls but their escape and the news on the whereabouts of the other girls has given me more hope," Zanna told Agence France Presse.

Borno's Governor Kashim Shettima told journalists that 14 of the hostages had escaped so far and offered 50 million naira ($300,000, 215,000 euros) to anyone with information that leads to the others being rescued.

Shettima voiced outrage at Boko Haram, a group which says it wants to create a strict Islamic state in northern Nigeria.

"In Islam, women and children are spared during war," Shettima said.

President Goodluck Jonathan has summoned his top security chiefs to a meeting on Thursday to discuss "the security situation in the country" in the wake of the Abuja bombing and the kidnapping, his office said.

He expressed concern for "the plight" of those who were abducted.  

The gunmen stormed the Government Girls Secondary School after sundown, torching several buildings before opening fire on security forces guarding the school.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden", has repeatedly attacked schools and universities in an insurgency that has killed thousands of people since 2009.

Intensifying violence in the group's northeastern base has forced school closures across the region, including at Chibok, but the girls were reportedly told to return this week to write end-of-term exams.

Witnesses said the gunmen killed a police officer and soldier in the shootout and ultimately forced their way into the school.

They then forced the girls outside and loaded them onto trucks and drove off into the bush of the remote region.

Some of the girls escaped by jumping off a truck when the gunmen became distracted by a vehicle that had broken down.

Jonathan has ordered "the military and national security agencies to deploy maximum efforts towards rescuing all of the girls," his office said, while defense spokesman Chris Olukolade claimed troops were closing "in on the den of those believed to have carried out the attack."

Later on Wednesday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the abduction of the schoolgirls, calling for their immediate release, his spokesman said.

Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the U.N. leader "condemns the shocking mass abduction of schoolgirls... He calls for the immediate release of all the girls abducted and their safe return to their families."

Dujarric said Ban was "deeply alarmed" by increasing attacks against educational facilities in northern Nigeria.

"The targeting of schools and school children is a grave violation of international humanitarian law," he said

"Schools are, and must remain, safe places where children can learn and grow in peace."

The United Nations children's organization (UNICEF) also condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms", and urged Nigeria "to urgently take steps to make sure that the children are returned to their families."

Jonathan and the military have sought to portray Boko Haram as rapidly losing strength thanks to a massive offensive in the northeast launched last May.

But a major bombing just a few kilometers from the seat of government in Abuja and another attack targeting defenseless students has underscored the serious threat the Islamists continue to pose.

Jonathan has faced mounting criticism over his failure to stem the violence, as he seeks to portray Nigeria as a country on the rise.

Information Minister Labaran Maku characterized Boko Haram's uprising as uniquely gruesome.

"Kidnapping young children is exactly what makes this group of terrorists in Nigeria among the worst in the world," Maku told journalists in Abuja.