Nigerian police have banned protests calling on the government to “bring back our girls.”
The protests, which began in Abuja in late April and spread into a global movement by May 1, have "degenerated" and are "now posing a serious security threat," Abuja police commissioner Joseph Mbu said, according to the Associated Press.
More than 200 schoolgirls have been missing since April 15, taken from their school in the northern Nigerian city of Chibok by Boko Haram Islamic militants. Some have escaped.
The Nigerian government, through intermediaries, has been negotiating with leaders of Boko Haram to find the girls and bring them home safely. One such negotiator, Australian clergyman Stephen Davis, says he has "come within a whisker" of freeing the girls three times in the past month, only to have the militants change their minds at the last moment.
"The best way to do this is quiet and quick," Dr. Davis told Channel 4 News on Monday. "But this is now loud and long. There are too many players from the two sides. This noise and clutter slows down the process and muddies the water," he said.
"It has become a very messy affair."