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| Cameron and Obama |
US and British experts have arrived
in Nigeria to help in the hunt for more than 200 schoolgirls whose abduction
last month by Islamists prompted universal outrage.
In a report monitored by
SHOWBIZPLUSng, the US embassy in Abuja told AFP Friday that a team of American
experts had arrived in Nigeria, without specifying the makeup of the group.
US officials have previously said
Washington would send military personnel as well as specialists from the
Justice Department and the FBI to help search for the girls kidnapped by the
Boko Haram group on April 14 in the northeastern town of Chibok.
British specialists, including
defence ministry personnel, also landed in Nigeria’s capital on Friday, the
foreign office said.
France and China have also offered
satellite imaging equipment to help find the girls whose kidnapping has drawn
condemnation worldwide and raised awareness about an Islamist uprising that has
killed thousands since 2009.
Nigeria had initially been slow to
respond to the kidnappings and the military’s search and rescue effort has been
fiercely criticised by activists and parents of the hostages.
But a series of protests in the
capital, a growing social media campaign, and attention from world leaders and
celebrities has put pressure on Nigeria to act more aggressively.
Nigeria has in the past resisted
security cooperation with the West, experts said, but amid outrage over the
plight of the hostages, President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration this week
welcomed offers of help from world powers.
- Unprecedented brutality -
The United Nations refugee agency
(UNHCR) on Friday said that aside from the kidnappings which have captured
global attention, focus needed to remain on Boko Haram’s wider insurgency.
“The brutality and frequency of (the
group’s) attacks is unprecedented,” UNHCR said in a statement.
Most of the group’s recent violence
has been concentrated in the remote northeast, where Boko Haram was founded
more than a decade ago, and where more than 1,600 people have already been
killed this year.
Attacks in Borno state have at times
seemed a weekly occurence this year, with defenceless civilians the most
frequent victims.
“Some have witnessed friends or
family members being randomly singled out and killed in the streets,” UNHCR
said.
“People speak of homes and fields
being burned to the ground, with villages completely razed, or grenades being
launched into crowded markets killing people and livestock,” the statement
added.
Boko Haram has said it is fighting
to create a strict Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north.
Some in the deeply conservative
northeast have voiced support for a society governed by sharia, or Islamic law.
But experts say that any public
support Boko Haram may have once had in the region has been largely destroyed
by its ruthless campaign against civilians.
The most recent massacre by the
group killed hundreds in the northeastern town of Gamboru Ngala, on the
Cameroon border.
Islamist gunmen razed much of the
town and fired indiscriminately on civilians as they tried to flee, burning
entire families in their homes.
- A turning point? -
Addressing a World Economic Forum
summit in Abuja on Thursday, Jonathan said the Chibok kidnappings would mark a
turning point in the battle against the Islamists, calling it “the beginning of
the end of terrorism in Nigeria.”
Nigeria’s failure to contain the
violence has raised questions as to whether the country can eliminate Boko
Haram without outside help.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous
country and top economy, with by far the largest defence budget in west Africa,
but its military has been widely accused of committing serious rights abuses,
while its competence has been criticised.
Some have voiced hope that
collaborating on the hostage rescue may improve Nigeria’s broader capacity to
defeat Boko Haram.
Britain’s foreign office said that
aside from working to rescue the hostages, its team, “working closely with
their US counterparts,” would also be focused on “longer-term counter-terrorism
solutions to prevent such attacks in the future and defeat Boko Haram.”
Vanguard
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