The United States said on Friday it had decreased its surveillance
flights in the search for the about 219 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram, but
added that the overall effort was unchanged due to more flights by other
countries.
It stated that it had no idea of the location of the girls, noting
however that there is no letup in the efforts to locate and rescue them.
“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,” Pentagon
spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters, according to Reuters.
Kirby said the same level of effort was being sustained now through
international involvement.
A US defence official speaking on condition of anonymity said American
flights had been reduced only after a body of intelligence had been gathered
and that the cuts had been offset by the British and the French support.
Kirby 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 said 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.
Officials declined to say how long heightened U.S. surveillance over
Nigeria had lasted.
Asked whether it was just a week or two, the defence official said, “No.
We were building this baseline for a good period of time.”
US surveillance flights over Nigeria were now intermittent, the source
said.
US military personnel are in Abuja helping to coordinate the effort, and
some 80 others were sent to Chad in May to support the surveillance operation.
Chad is northeast of Nigeria and borders the area in which Boko Haram is
known to operate.
In the last month, US officials had played down expectations about a swift
rescue of the girls and stressed the limitations of intelligence from
surveillance flights.
One US official voiced concerns that Boko Haram 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 that were not being held in one place.
The defence official said surveillance alone would not lead to a
resolution. “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,” he noted.
In an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Friday, President
Goodluck Jonathan said his government and security services had “spared no
resources, have not stopped and will not stop until the girls are returned
home.”
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Society
hmmmm, now I believe there are more to this abductions that these guys are not telling us
ReplyDeleteTimmy
You can say that again. One day the truth shall be known.
ReplyDeleteShamefull US,we nw understand it was a plan work GOD will distrowel all ur plan AMEEN
ReplyDeleteThere was nothing like abduction. Its all political to tarnish the image of our president. Let's continue to watch the home video. This is part 1 and the part 2 is coming out soon. Asari Dokubo said it and we were calling him all sorts of names that he is a mad man. Na wa for naija politics
ReplyDelete