The United States on Friday said it had reduced its
surveillance flights in the search for the about 219
schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Borno
State, over two months ago, but added that the
overall effort has not been affected due to more
flights by other countries.
It also stated that it had no idea where the girls are
located, noting however that there is no giving up in
the efforts to locate and rescue them.
This revelation might just be an indication that the US
and Nigerian military authorities are working at
cross-purposes because we recall that the Chief of
Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, while
addressing members of an NGO, the Citizen Initiative
for Security Awareness (CISA) last month, said
categorically: “The good news for parents of the girls
is that we know where they are but we cannot tell
you. We cannot come and tell you the military’s
secret. Just leave us alone to do our work. We are
working to get the girls back”.
But Pentagon spokesman, Rear Admiral John Kirby
told reporters, according to Reuters that “We don’t
have any better idea today than we did before about
where these girls are, but there’s been no letup of the
effort itself”.
Kirby said the same level of effort was being
sustained now through the involvement of the
international community.
The Pentagon spokesman, however, denied a
suggestion that US flights over Nigeria had been
reduced to accommodate increased US surveillance
over Iraq, where Washington is flying unmanned and
manned aircraft to gather intelligence about Sunni
insurgents.
He noted that some of the resources that were being
used in Nigeria had been diverted from other missions
in Africa and could now be used elsewhere on the
continent.
US military personnel are in Abuja helping to
coordinate the effort to rescue the abducted girls
while some 80 others were deployed to Chad last
month to support the surveillance operation.
Chad shares border with Nigeria on the North-East,
specifically, Borno, which is regarded as Boko
Haram’s stronghold.
In the last month, US officials had downplayed
expectations about a swift rescue of the girls and
stressed the limitations of intelligence from
surveillance flights.
One US official particularly raised concerns that the
insurgents might have booby-trapped areas where
the girls could be held, and there had been reports
that they might have been split up into groups as
against being held in one place.
The defence official said surveillance alone would not
lead to a resolution noting that “It will take the
Nigerian piece of the equation with their own sources
and human intelligence coupled with the other forms
to really understand the picture”.
