More troops join search for Nigerian schoolgirls
Print Edition
NIGERIA’S army has dispatched two divisions to hunt for the 200 schoolgirls abducted last month by Islamist rebels in an attack condemned globally yesterday.
The soldiers are stationed in the border region close to Chad, Cameroon and Niger to work with other security agencies, said General Chris Olukolade, spokesman for the Defense Headquarters.
The government of President Goodluck Jonathan has faced criticism for its slow response since Boko Haram militants stormed a school in the village of Chibok on April 14 and kidnapped the girls.
Fifty have since escaped but more than 200 remain with the insurgents.
“The facilities of the Nigerian army signals ... have been devoted to coordinating this search,” Olukolade said.
“The challenge is the fact that some of the information turned out to be misleading,” he said.
The air force has flown more than 250 sorties, a signals unit and the police are involved and a multinational task force has also been activated in support of 10 search teams, he said.
The United States, Britain, France, China and international police agency Interpol have all offered assistance.
Jonathan on Friday said he believed the schoolgirls were still in Nigeria and had not been transported into Cameroon. It was the first indication he has given of their whereabouts.
The attackers were based in the Sambisa area of Borno state, a Boko Haram stronghold near the school from where the girls were abducted, he said.
Michelle Obama yesterday took the rare step of delivering her husband President Barack Obama’s weekly radio address to express outrage at the kidnapping.
“Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I are outraged and heartbroken,” she said.
Boko Haram’s fight for an Islamic state has killed thousands since mid-2009 and destabilized swathes of northeast Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger.
The outrage at the attack has shone a spotlight on the rebellion and the challenges faced by Nigeria’s government just as its economy overtook South Africa’s as the biggest on the continent. It also overshadowed the World Economic Forum held this week in Abuja.
Human rights group Amnesty International claimed security forces had been warned more than four hours in advance of the school attack but didn’t do enough to stop it. Olukolade dismissed the report as baseless.
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