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Tuesday 13 May 2014

#Bringbackourgirls: US Deploys Surveillance Aircraft To Hunt For Nigerian Schoolgirls


The United States has deployed manned surveillance aircraft over Nigeria and is sharing satellite imagery with the Nigerian government to find more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist insurgents, a senior Obama administration official said on Monday.
"We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets over Nigeria with the government's permission," the official said.
The US has sent military, law-enforcement and development experts to Nigeria to help search for the missing girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants from a secondary school in Chibok in remote northeastern Nigeria on April 14.

The 27-minute video showed around 130 of the girls wearing grey and black veils. Two of them speak of their conversion from Christianity toIslam.
It also shows Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau offering to let the girls go if the Nigerian government releases his fighters from prison.
State department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a news briefing on Monday: "We are providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support."
She said US teams on the ground "are digging in on the search and coordinating closely with the Nigerian government as well as international partners and allies".
Last week, US undersecretary for Africa Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Reuters in an interview that Nigeria had requested surveillance and intelligence from the United States.
Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has said he believes the girls are still in Nigeria. The leader of Boko Haram has offered to release them in exchange for members of its group being detained, according to a video posted on YouTube on Monday. 
A typical US drone: US now flying surveillance planes over Nigeria
A typical US drone: US now flying surveillance planes over Nigeria
“We have no reason to question its authenticity,” she added of the video.
In the video, the Islamic militant group’s leader Abubakar Shekau said the girls may be released once Nigeria frees all the Boko Haram prisoners it has in custody.
But that proposal has been rejected by the Nigerian government, and Psaki recalled that the US policy is also “to deny kidnappers the benefits of their criminal acts, including ransoms or concessions.”
A 30-strong US team arrived on the ground last week in Nigeria to help growing efforts to find the girls aged between 16 to 18, snatched from their boarding school in the northeast of the country on April 14.
The White House said the team included five State Department officials, two strategic communications experts, a civilian security expert and a regional medical support officer.
Also on the manifest are 10 Defense Department planners already in Nigeria, seven extra military advisors from US Africa Command and four FBI officials expert in hostage negotiations.
“We are talking about helping the Nigerian government search an area that is roughly the size of New England,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said, referring to the region in the US northeast.
“So this is no small task. But we are certainly bringing resources to bear in our effort to assist the government.”
Psaki stressed the Nigerian authorities were “in the lead” during the investigation.
The girls’ plight has triggered a storm of outrage across the United States, and First Lady Michelle Obama on Saturday for the first time delivered her husband’s weekly address to the nation to say they were both “outraged and heartbroken” by the kidnapping.
“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.

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