– The American forces locate the Chibok
girls kidnap by the Boko Haram two
years ago
–The US officials say that some of the
captives may be turned to the suicide
bombers
They assured the relatives of that the
abducted Girls have not been abandoned
The American officials said that the joint
forces of the USA and African countries
have found the whereabouts of the
clusters of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted
by the Boko Haram sect two years ago.
However, the rescue operations have not
been carried out because of fears that any
succeeding battle with the insurgents
would put the hostages at risk, or provoke
some form of revenge against captives still
being held in other areas.
According to the officials, a combination
of local intelligence, intercepted
communications and drone footage had
been used to find groups of the girls this
month.
15 of the Chibok girls shown in the recent
video
At the same time, they claimed that
efforts to free the girls have not been left.
The officials said that a key concern is
the hundreds of other women and girls
who are also held by Boko Haram,
captives who are often raped, forced into
marriages with their abductors, and
sometimes killed.
The retired head of the United States
military Africa Command Gen. Carter F.
Ham said: “ You’re not just looking for 200
girls. There are many, many others who
have been taken hostage, and more
thousands killed, and two and a half
million people displaced.”
The intelligence reports show that the
girls have been separated into smaller
groups.
Gen. David M. Rodriguez, the head of the
military’s Africa Command, added that the
Chibok girls have been “ moved to some
very isolated places.” He continued that
locating them is “not an exact science.”
“So the challenge is, how do you find lots
of people held hostage in different places?
That’s really complex and it stretches the
capability of local forces ,” General Ham
added.
Col. Badjeck Didier, a spokesperson for
Cameroon’s Defense Ministry, said
recently that he worried that some of the
Chibok girls may have become suicide
bombers.
He said: “ When we see the kamikaze
bombers, they have the same age — 14-15
years — as the Chibok girls. A recent
video released by Boko Haram that
purported to show proof of life of a
number of the Chibok girls — something
the Nigerian government had demanded
as a condition of negotiations — was a
sign that the group wants to negotiate.”
The mothers of missing girls who
identified their daughters
“These women did not chose to become
suicide bombers, but after two years of
incarceration and bearing children of
these men, some of them had to buy in
out of personal survival ,” Sanderson said.
“I do think that Boko Haram has
considered using these girls to kill their
rescuers. And that would cause people to
have spasms over what that symbolism
meant,” added Tom M. Sanderson,
director of the transnational threats
project at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies.
On her own part, Samantha Power, the
United States ambassador to the United
Nations said that the Special Operations
forces sent by President Obama were
doing “surveillance, intelligence and
reconnaissance” and would continue their
efforts to locate the Chibok girls.
It is believed to have been made on
December 25 last year during negotiations
between the government and parties
claiming to represent Boko Haram.
Two of the three women to whom the
footage was shown identified their
daughters; a third was upset that it did
not show her daughter.
The abduction of the 276 girls caused the
global social media campaign
#BringBackOurGirls, involving US first
lady Michelle Obama.
Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the sect,
shortly after the kidnap said the girls had
converted to Islam and he threatened to
force them into marriage with his fighters
or sell them into slavery.
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