UPDATE: Boko Haram Lists Conditions For Ceasefire

An alleged member of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram set conditions on Thursday for peace talks with Nigeria’s government, asking that negotiations to end its bloody guerrilla fight be held outside of the nation and that a former military ruler be involved.
The demands came during a telephone conference call with local journalists in Maiduguri, the city in northeast Nigeria that once held the sect’s main mosque and has suffered the brunt of its violence over several years of shootings and bombings. However, whether the offer represents a clear call for peace from the group remains unclear, as its command and control structure remains a mystery and the call for talks came from a member unknown by the media until Thursday.
The man, who identified himself as Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, said the peace talks must be held in Saudi Arabia and involve former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari. The man said those were conditions set by Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s leader.
“We are not actually challenging the state, as people are saying, but the security (forces) who are killing our members, children and wives,” the man said in the call. “We are highly offended but if this government is sincere, everything (the attacks) will come to an end. We want to dialogue but government must show sincerity in its handling of the situation.”
The man also said that authorities also must arrest former Borno state Gov. Ali Modu Sheriff as a precondition for talks, as well as compensate sect members whose family members have been killed. Imprisoned sect members also must be immediately released, the man said.
The call came through the channels that Boko Haram usually communicates with journalists, who gathered at the local office of the Nigeria Union of Journalists to listen. However, Abdulaziz spoke entirely in English, which is unusual for the sect. Also, journalists ordinarily hear from a spokesman who uses the nom de guerre Abul Qaqa in such calls. The man also did not call for the implementation of Shariah law across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. That long has been a demand of the sect.