The Nigeria presidency announced its intention to negotiate for the release of 110 girls kidnapped last month from a school in the northeastern town of Dapchi, thus avoiding using the military option.
President Muhammadu Buhari discussed this solution in a closed-door meeting in the capital Abuja with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in Nigeria for the last leg of a week-long tour of the five African countries.
Nigeria is grappling with an insurrection by the jihadist group Boko Haram which, since 2009, has killed at least 20.000 people. Members of the group are suspected of kidnapping the girls on February 19, in Yobe state.
"President Buhari added that Nigeria is working together with international organizations and negotiators to ensure that the girls were released unharmed by their kidnappers," the presidency said in a statement by Buhari's spokesman.
The kidnapping is one of the biggest since Boko Haram kidnapped more than 270 female students from the northeastern town of Chibok in the 2014. About 100 of Chibok girls are still held, although some of them have been released on payment of a ransom.