N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad said it believed Nigeria's secret deal with Boko Haram Islamists to free more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls would go ahead despite the breakdown of a truce, and added the key to the agreement was a prisoner swap.
"Quite possibly, those that are fighting are dissidents that even they aren't able to control. So far, there is no reason for others to doubt this agreement," Moussa Mahamat Dago, the No. 2 at Chad's foreign ministry, told Reuters late on Thursday.
"The starting condition of Boko Haram was the liberation of some of their members ... That is the compensation," said Dago, who has seen a summary of the deal reached in Chad last month.
"We remain optimistic. The two sides agreed to find a negotiated solution and to show their good faith, they already freed some hostages and announced a ceasefire."
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)