Nigeria: Sect Commander Offers Truce

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/world/africa/nigeria-sect-commander-offers-truce.html

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Nigerian authorities on Tuesday welcomed a cease-fire declaration by a commander of the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram, but security forces said they would not lower their guard. Sheik Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulazeez, who security officials say is a Boko Haram commander, called on sect members on Monday to halt attacks that have killed hundreds since the start of an uprising to carve out an Islamic state in Nigeria in 2009. It was not immediately clear if he was speaking on behalf of Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, or whether he represented only a faction. “It is a good step for Boko Haram to be moving in the right direction,” said the presidency spokesman, Doyin Okupe, adding that the government would discuss the move “once it has been ascertained that it is genuine, that it is sincere.”