The United States have offered military and technical support
to Nigeria to hunt down the Islamist group which has abducted a new batch of
schoolgirls, piling pressure on the Nigerian authorities to find and free the
victims.
President Barack Obama led a mounting international outcry on
Tuesday and said Nigeria's government had accepted help from US military and
law enforcement officials to pursue Boko Haram militants.
Gunmen believed to be from the group kidnapped eight more
girls, aged between eight and 15, in an overnight raid on a village in the
sect's stronghold in north-eastern Borno state on Monday. It was already
holding 257 girls from a raid on a school on 15 April.
Obama said the US was doing its utmost to help resolve the
"heartbreaking" and "outrageous" situation but stopped
short of offering to send troops – in contrast to Britain, which is prepared to
send special forces and intelligence gathering aircraft.
"In the short term our goal is obviously to help the
international community, and the Nigerian government, as a team to do
everything we can to recover these young ladies," Obama told NBC.
"But we're also going to have to deal with the broader problem of
organisations like this that ... can cause such havoc in people's day-to-day
lives."
The president said Boko Haram was one of the world's worst terrorist
organisations. "I can only imagine what the parents are going
through," added Obama, a father of two daughters aged 15 and 12.
The offers from Washington and London follow widespread
criticism of the Nigerian government's perceived sluggish response to the
crisis. Relatives of the girls have protested in the capital, Abuja.
John Kerry, the secretary of state, said Washington had been
in touch with Abuja since "day one". It rebuffed US offers of help
until Tuesday when Kerry spoke with Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan.
"I think now the complications that have arisen have
convinced everybody that there needs to be a greater effort," Kerry said
at a state department news conference. "And it will begin immediately. I
mean, literally, immediately."
culled from the guardian
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