Nigeria looks for intermediaries for sect talks

As a radical Islamist sect continues violent attacks across Nigeria's north, the nation is searching for possible negotiators to serve as an indirect channel to a group whose very structure remains a mystery.       

Government officials, including President Goodluck Jonathan, have said that negotiation with the sect known as Boko Haram remains a possible way to end the killings. In recent weeks, there have been efforts to reach out to the sect to create a way of holding talks, though the attempts remain preliminary at best, a man involved in previous efforts at dialogue told The Associated Press on Friday.       

The man requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the efforts.       

Efforts "are actually going on but the problem being faced now is the group wanted the talks to be discrete," the man said. "It is now in the public realm."       

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the Hausa language of Nigeria's Muslim north, is blamed for more than 360 killings this year alone, according to an AP count. The sect, employing suicide bombers and assault-rifle shootouts, has attacked Christians and Muslims, as well as the United Nations' headquarters in Nigeria. Authorities also blame the sect for the kidnapping of a British and Italian hostages who were killed in a failed rescue operation March 8, though a sect spokesman has denied the group's involvement.       

AP