The U.S. will send a team to help Nigeria locate more than 200 schoolgirls seized by Islamist militants three weeks ago, amid a growing global outcry over their kidnapping.
The assistance includes "the deployment of U.S. security personnel and assets to work with their Nigerian counterparts in the search and rescue operation," Reuben Abati, a spokesman for Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, said in an e-mailed statement today.
Gunmen on April 14 raided dormitories in an all-girls secondary school in remote Chibok in the northeastern state of Borno, and drove off in trucks with more than 200 students. The Boko Haram Islamist group said it had taken the girls captive because they were being educated instead of getting married.
Video: Militants Vow to Sell Kidnapped Nigerian Girls
"We would also give their hands in marriage because they are our slaves," Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video released yesterday.
About 275,000 people have signed an online petition demanding the government do more to rescue the girls, and there have been rallies seeking their release in cities including New York and Washington as well as Abuja, Nigeria's capital, and Lagos, its commercial hub.
Location Unknown
Boko Haram, whose name means "western education is a sin," is waging a violent campaign to impose Islamic law in Africa's biggest oil producer and most populous country of about 170 million people. The five-year insurgency has claimed more than 4,000 lives and forced almost half a million people to flee their homes, according to the International Crisis Group.
Another group of eight girls aged between 12 and 15 were seized by gunmen in Gwoza, another village in Borno, on May 4, Maina Musa, a resident, said in a phone interview today. Security officials couldn't immediately be reached to confirm the report.
The U.S. will send a team that includes military personnel and experts in hostage negotiations, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in Washington today. She said members of the team can also "help facilitate information sharing and provide victim assistance."
The exact location of the girls isn't yet known by security forces working to free them, Jonathan said on May 4, speaking publicly for the first time about the abduction.
'Swiftly Dispersed'
The president, who hasn't said if he will run in elections next year, and his government have suffered a backlash because of the abductions, as well as bomb attacks in Abuja that killed more than 90 people in the past month, said Natznet Tesfay, senior manager for Africa at IHS Country Risk in London.
"Additional attacks further south than Abuja could significantly undermine Jonathan's presumed re-election ambitions," she said today in an e-mailed response to questions.
The attacks have also raised security concerns as Nigeria prepares to host the World Economic Forum on Africa, which starts in Abuja tomorrow.
There may be more demonstrations in the next days over the girls' detention and Boko Haram's threat to sell them, Peter Sharwood-Smith, West Africa manager for security company Drum Cussac, said in a statement e-mailed today from Lagos.
"Given the heightened security posture in the capital for the WEF event and expected presence of foreign dignitaries, any protests are likely be swiftly dispersed by security forces," he said.
Nigeria, which is due to hold general elections in February, is almost evenly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south.
To contact the reporters on this story: Gbenga Akingbule in Maiduguri at gakingbule@bloomberg.net; Daniel Magnowski in Abuja at dmagnowski@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net Ben Holland, John Bowker
Source : http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-06/nigerian-government-faces-pressure-to-free-girls-from-boko-haram.html
