The US has sent a team of “experts” to help Nigeria safely recover more than 200 schoolgirls that were abducted last month by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
US President Barack Obama said that the team would be made of up military personnel, law enforcement, and other agencies to aid in the effort in the wake of news that eight more girls were kidnapped by the group last Sunday.
Boko Haram, which translates at “Western education is sinful and forbidden” in the local Hausa language, have waged a bloody insurgency since 2009, which has left thousands dead, and seeks to create a “pure” Islamic state in Nigeria. The group recently announced that they plan to sell the abducted schoolgirls at “market” in a video obtained by AFP.
In a press conference, Obama said:
“It is a heartbreaking situation, and outrageous situation. You’ve got one of the worst regional or local terrorist organisation in Boko Haram in Nigeria. They’ve been killing people ruthlessly for many years now and we’ve already been seeking greater cooperation with the Nigerians. This may be the event that helps to mobilize the entire international community to finally do something against this horrendous organisation that’s perpetrated such a terrible crime.”
US officials have said the first group of abducted girls, aged between 16 and 18, may have already been smuggled over Nigeria’s porous borders into countries such as Chad and Cameroon.
However, officials in Chad and Cameroon say they do not believe the girls are in their countries.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that Washington will set up a co-ordination cell at its embassy in Abuja with US military personnel, law enforcement officials and experts in hostage situations.
“[Nigerian] President Goodluck Jonathan was very happy to receive this offer and ready to move on it immediately,” he told reporters, after talks with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
The UK has also offered to help the Nigerian authorities in their search, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Tuesday, without specifying what form the assistance would take.
Criticism
Baroness Ashton said the girls’ kidnapping was “devastating for all of us”.
“These are the future of the country,” she said.
“They are teachers, dancers, politicians. They are scientists, they are mothers, they are women in the making who have a right to play their full part in their society.”
President Jonathan, speaking in Abuja, said his country’s security agencies “would appreciate” the deployment of US counter-insurgency expertise.
The Nigerian government has been criticised at home and abroad for what some say is a slow response to the abductions.
President Jonathan has said they are doing everything they can.
In the latest kidnapping, gunmen arrived in two trucks and also seized animals and food from the village of Warabe.
Residents of a nearby town said they feared Boko Haram would target them next.
Warabe is also close to the Sambisa forest, where the first group of schoolgirls is thought to have been taken.
