Nigeria's Army Posts Troops To Hunt For Kidnapped Schoolgirls

[HuffingtonPost]

By Matthew Mpoke Bigg                

ABUJA, May 10 (Reuters) - Nigeria's Army has posted two  divisions to hunt for 200 schoolgirls abducted last month by  Islamist rebels in an attack condemned globally including by  U.S. first lady Michelle Obama on Saturday.                

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 Defence  Headquarters.                

The government of President Goodluck Jonathan has faced  criticism for its slow response since Boko Haram militants  stormed a secondary school in the village of Chibok, near the  Cameroon border, on April 14, and kidnapped the girls, who were  taking exams. Fifty have escaped but more than 200 remain with  the insurgents.                

"The facilities of the Nigerian Army signals as well as all  the communication facilities of the Nigerian Police and all the  services have been devoted into coordinating this search,"  Olukolade said in a statement.                

"The major challenge remains the fact that some of the  information given here turned out in many occasions to be  misleading .... Nevertheless, this will not discourage the  collaborative efforts that are on-going," 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 and surveillance equipment is deployed  in support of ten 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 remained  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.                                

RARE STEP                

Michelle Obama took the rare step of delivering her husband  President Barack Obama's weekly radio address on Saturday to  express outrage over the kidnapping.                

"Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I  are outraged and heartbroken over the kidnapping of more than  200 Nigerian girls from their school dormitory in the middle of  the night," she said in the address.                

"This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group  determined to keep these girls from getting an education - grown  men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls," she  said.                

Boko Haram's fight for an Islamic state has killed thousands  since it erupted in mid-2009 and has destabilised swathes of the  northeast of Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, as well as  neighbours Cameroon and Niger.                

The global outrage over the attack has shone a spotlight on  the rebellion and institutional challenges faced by the  government and military just as Nigeria's economy has overtaken  South Africa's as the biggest on the continent.                

Earlier this month, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau  threatened to sell the girls "in the market".                

The kidnappings and a broader militant threat overshadowed  the World Economic Forum held in the Nigerian capital this week  that showcased investment and opportunity in the country of 160  million people.                

Human rights group Amnesty International said in a  statement, citing multiple interviews with sources, that the  security forces had been warned more than four hours in advance  of the school attack but did not do enough to stop it. Olukolade  dismissed the report as baseless.     (Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington; Editing by  Janet Lawrence)
Source: huffingtonpost.com