As global awareness of the plight of the more than 250 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents more than three weeks ago increases, foreign countries that pledged to assist the country in its efforts to rescue the girls have started making good their promises.
According to a CNN report, military advisers from the U.S. and U.K. have started arriving. Quoting the Pentagon Press Secretary, John Kirby, CNN said that six U.S. military advisers arrived the country on Friday.
Mr. Kirby, however, said there are no plans to bring US combat troops on ground.
“They will join a team of U.S. and British officials already in Nigeria, helping find the girls, planning rescue efforts and devising strategies to help subdue Boko Haram.”
Another British team, which also arrived on Friday, is drawn from the country’s Department for International Development, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence, the report says.
Though France has promised to send a team of military expert to help, information about their area of expertise is not known.
Meanwhile, the British team will be making use of the advance tracking capabilities and its satellites in the rescue effort. China has also pledged to provide any intelligence gathered by its Satellite network.
Lost time
Mr. Kirby who said time is of essence in a hostage situation regretted that the Nigerian authorities waited almost three weeks before embarking on a rescue of the missing girls.
“In a hostage situation, time is of the essence. We lost some time,” he said of the kidnap that occurred on the night of April 14.
It took the Nigerian government about two weeks to acknowledge that the girls were missing. The government called for international help when it became clear that the Nigerian military was incapable of locating the girls or rescuing them on its own.
The Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the kidnap and has threatened to sell or marry off the girls.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment