- NEW: Residents say Boko Haram launched a fatal market attack this week
- The ICRC and Nigerian government are involved in the talks
- The talks involve a swap of imprisoned group members for kidnapped school girls
- An estimated 276 girls were kidnapped from a Nigerian school in April
(CNN) -- Nigerian government officials and the International Committee of the Red Cross have had talks with Boko Haram about swapping imprisoned members of the Islamist terrorist group for the more than 200 Chibok school girls kidnapped in April, a source involved in the negotiations told CNN.
The officials met four times in mid-August with two senior members of Boko Haram in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.
The swap would involve the release of 30 Boko Haram commanders in the custody of the Nigerian government, according to the source, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
A video of Abubakar Shekau, who claims to be the leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, is shown on September 25, 2013. Boko Haram is an Islamist militant group waging a campaign of violence in northern Nigeria. The group's ambitions range from the stricter enforcement of Sharia law to the total destruction of the Nigerian state and its government. Click through to see recent bloody incidents in this strife-torn West African nation: 
Bodies lie in the streets in Maiduguri after religious clashes in northern Nigeria, on July 31, 2009. Boko Haram exploded onto the national scene in 2009 when 700 people were killed in widespread clashes across the north between the group and the Nigerian military. 
An unidentified official displays burned equipment inside a prison in Bauchi on September 9, 2010, after the prison was attacked by suspected members of Boko Haram on September 7. About 720 inmates escaped during the prison break, and police suspect the prison was attacked because it was holding 80 members of the sect. 
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, second from left, stands on the back of a vehicle after being sworn-in as President during a ceremony in the capital of Abuja on May 29, 2011. In December 2011, Jonathan declared a state of emergency in parts of the country afflicted by violence from the militant Islamist group. 
Rescue workers evacuate a wounded person from a U.N. building in Abuja on August 26, 2011. The building was rocked by a bomb that killed at least 23 people, leaving others trapped and causing heavy damage. Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for the attack in which a Honda packed with explosives rammed into the U.N. building, shattering windows and setting the place afire. 
A photo taken on November 6, 2011, shows state police headquarters burned by a series of bomb and gun attacks that targeted police stations, mosques and churches in Damaturu on November 4, 2011. Attackers left scores injured -- probably more than 100 -- in a three-hour rampage in the Yobe state city of Damaturu. Sixty-three people died. 
Men look at the wreckage of a car after a bomb blast at St. Theresa Catholic Church outside Abuja on December 25, 2011. A string of bombs struck churches in five Nigerian cities, leaving dozens dead and wounded on the Christmas holiday, authorities and witnesses said. Boko Haram's targets included police outposts and churches as well as places associated with "Western influence." 
A paramedic helps a young man injured during one of the multiple explosions and shooting attacks as he leaves a hospital in the northern city of Kano on January 21, 2012. A spate of bombings and shootings left more than 200 people dead in Nigeria's second-largest city. Three days later, a joint military task force in Nigeria arrested 158 suspected members of Boko Haram. 
A photo taken on June 18, 2012, shows a car vandalized after three church bombings and retaliatory attacks in northern Nigeria killed at least 50 people on June 17 and injured more than 130 others, the Nigerian Red Cross Society said. 
A French family kidnapped on February 19, 2013, in northern Cameroon is released after two months in captivity in Nigeria. The family of four children, their parents and an uncle were kidnapped in Waza National Park in northern Cameroon, situated near the border with Nigeria. One of the captive men read a statement demanding that Nigeria and Cameroon free jailed members of Boko Haram. 
A soldier stands in front of a damaged wall and the body of a prison officer killed during an attack on a prison in the northeastern town of Bama on May 7, 2013. Two soldiers were killed during coordinated attacks on multiple targets. Nigeria's military says more than 100 Boko Haram militants carried out the attack. 
A deserted student hostel on August 6, 2013, is shown after gunmen stormed a school in Yobe state, killing 20 students and a teacher, state media reported on July 6, 2013. Boko Haram regularly carries out attacks in Yobe, in Nigeria's northeast. 
A photograph made available by the Nigerian army on August 13, 2013, shows improvised explosive devices, bomb making materials and detonators seized from a Boko Haram hideout. Gunmen attacked a mosque in Nigeria with automatic weapons on August 11, 2013, killing at least 44 people. 
Nigerian students from Jos Polytechnic walk on campus in Jos, Nigeria, on September 30, 2013. Under the cover of darkness, gunmen approached a college dormitory in a rural Nigerian town and opened fire on students who were sleeping. At least 40 students died, according to the News Agency of Nigeria. 
Soldiers stand outside the 79 Composite Group Air Force base that was attacked earlier in Maiduguri on December 2, 2013. Hundreds of Boko Haram militants attacked an Air Force base and a military checkpoint, according to government officials. 
Former hostage and French Catholic Priest Georges Vandenbeusch speaks to reporters outside Paris, France, on January 1, after his release. Vandenbeusch was snatched from his parish church in Cameroon on November 13, 2013. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for kidnapping the priest. 
A man receives treatment at Konduga specialist hospital after a gruesome attack on January 26. It's suspected that Boko Haram militants opened fire on a village market and torched homes in the village of Kawuri in Borno state, killing at least 45 people. 
Police officers stand guard in front of the burned remains of homes and businesses in the village of Konduga, in northeastern Nigeria, on February 12. Suspected Boko Haram militants torched houses in the village, killing at least 23 people, according to the governor of Borno state on February 11. 
Ibrahim Gaidam, governor of Yobe state, left, looks at the bodies of students inside an ambulance outside a mosque in Damaturu. At least 29 students died in an attack on a federal college in Buni Yadi, near the the capital of Yobe state, Nigeria's military said on February 26. Authorities suspect Boko Haram carried out the assault in which several buildings were also torched. In April as many as 200 girls were abducted from their boarding school in northeastern Nigeria by heavily armed Boko Haram Islamists who arrived in trucks, vans and buses, officials and witnesses said. The group has recently stepped up attacks in the region, and its leader released a video last month threatening to kidnap girls from schools. Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis A screengrab taken in May from a Boko Haram video shows the schoolgirls in an undisclosed rural location.
Parents outraged over missing schoolgirls 
Source: 63 girls escape Boko Haram Boko Haram submitted a list with the names of 30 members who were either convicted or awaiting trial on terror offenses.
"The two Boko Haram negotiators assured the ICRC and government negotiators that the girls were never raped, were never used as sex slaves and were never sexually assaulted," said the source, who attended the discussions.
The terrorist group abducted an estimated 276 girls in April from a boarding school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. Dozens escaped, but more than 200 are still missing.
Boko Haram has expressed a willingness for a swap with the ICRC at an undisclosed location, according to the source. But there was disagreement on some terms, including the number of girls involved in the swap.
Boko Haram had insisted on an even swap -- 30 girls for the 30 commanders -- but the government refused, according to the source.
"They were only ready to release one to one, which the government was not going to accept," the source said.
Another hurdle in the talks was Boko Haram's insistence on meeting the imprisoned 30 members involved in the swap, but they only had contact with six at a prison outside Abuja, the source said.
"ICRC couldn't find where the remaining 24 were being detained," the source said.
The six prisoners included Kabiru Sokoto, a senior Boko Haram commander convicted in December 2013 of terrorism charges related to the fatal Christmas Day bombing of a church in the town of Madallah in 2011.
The Boko Haram negotiators said they would get back to the government after consulting with superiors.
ICRC sources declined to comment.
The name "Boko Haram" translates to "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language. The militant group is trying to impose strict Sharia law across Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa.
In recent years, its attacks have intensified in an apparent show of defiance amid the nation's military onslaught. Its ambitions appear to have expanded to the destruction of the Nigerian government.
Ongoing militant attacks
Dozens of merchants were killed this week when Boko Haram gunmen launched a rocket and gun attack on a local market in northeastern Borno state, witnesses said Saturday.
The attack happened Thursday but details were slow to emerge because of a mobile phone shutdown in the region Friday. Phone signals were restored only on Saturday, residents said.
Scores of Boko Haram militiamen wearing military and police uniforms stormed a market in the town of Mainok, 31 miles (56 km) outside Maiduguri, during peak hours, the witnesses said.
The militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and fired on traders. They looted food and loaded it onto trucks abandoned by fleeing traders, witnesses said.
"They killed dozens of people in the raid but it is difficult to give precise toll because everybody fled the market to escape the gunmen," said local merchant Babagana Kyari, who witnessed the attack.
The attack was an attempt by the militia to replenish depleted food supplies in areas under its control, said Madu Kachalla, another trader at the market. "They seized cash from traders and loaded food stuff into trucks they impounded at the market before fleeing into the bush," Kachalla said.
Boko Haram fighters looted a truck carrying sacks of grain to Maiduguri on Wednesday before setting it on fire, residents said.
Troops rescue 85 Nigerian hostages from Boko Haram
CNN's Ray Sanchez contributed to this story.
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