International Nigerian Police Ban Protests Over Kidnapped Girls

 Nigerian police said Monday they have banned protests in the capital demanding that the government rescue more than 200 girls still held captive by Boko Haram militants.

The protests have "degenerated" and are "now posing a serious security threat," Abuja police commissioner Joseph Mbu said in a statement.

The kidnapping crisis, now in its seventh week, has highlighted Nigeria's failure to curb Boko Haram's uprising.

First lady Patience Jonathan last month called a meeting to investigate the Chibok kidnappings. She said the abductions were engineered to hurt her husband and his government.

Nigerian officials cautioned protesters against holding sit-ins calling for the release of 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in the capital, Abuja, on Tuesday, saying they were at risk of being hijacked by "criminal elements having links with insurgents". The warning came less than 24 hours after a police commissioner said all rallies in support of the missing girls were banned, prompting activists to seek court action to overturn it.

The latest twist in a crisis that has dragged on for seven weeks comes as the Guardian has learned that the government is actively trying to establish channels through which negotiations could be opened with the militants. Behind a series of politically charged protests and debates, officials are aiming to gather a special task force whose goal will be to cut a deal, or wear down the commanders of certain factions, according to insiders with access to Boko Haram's senior hierarchy.

Often portrayed as a shadowy sect that operates from the margins of society, Boko Haram is in fact deeply embedded in the impoverished north-eastern rural settlements from which it originally sprang. "The government are looking for people they can trust" to act as couriers, according to an intelligence official directly involved in the ongoing talks. That has meant trying to strengthen a network of informants and go-betweens in a situation where so much bad blood exists that direct talks have been ruled out.

More: Guardian