Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan promised to find more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist rebels Boko Haram on Thursday as the hostage crisis overshadowed his opening address at the World Economic Forum, according to Reuters.
Taking place in the capital Abuja, the conference is designed to showcase investment opportunities in Africa's biggest economy, Nigeria, Reuters reported.
Jonathan thanked foreign nations including the United States, Britain, France and China for their support in trying to rescue the girls, who were kidnapped from a secondary school on April 14 by Boko Haram, Reuters reported.
He also praised delegates for coming despite the danger posed by the militants, then quickly moved on to a speech about creating jobs in African economies, according to Reuters.
"As a nation we are facing attack from terrorism," Jonathan told delegates, Reuters reported. "I believe that the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end of terrorism in Nigeria."
The kidnappings and numerous other attacks by Boko Haram militants have overshadowed Nigeria's hosting of the forum, an annual gathering of the rich and powerful that replicates the one in Davos, Switzerland, and Jonathan admitted on national television this week that he had no idea where the girls were, according to Reuters.
Security for the event was tight and police and military trucks blocked off all roads leading to the Abuja Transcorp Hilton hotel, where the event was based, Reuters reported. Soldiers also patrolled the hotel's grounds and the perimeter with automatic weapons.
France became the latest nation to offer help on Wednesday, saying it was boosting intelligence ties with Nigeria and sending security service agents there to tackle Boko Haram, the militant group which claimed the kidnapping, according to Reuters.
In the latest big Islamist attack in Nigeria, 125 people were killed on Monday when gunmen rampaged through a town in the northeast near the Cameroon border, Reuters reported. A senator from Borno state, Ahmed Zannah, put the number killed at 300, although local politicians have sometimes been accused of exaggerating casualty figures for political reasons.
