The United States of America, USA, has deployed 80 military personnel to Chad to help regional efforts to rescue the more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls, President Barack Obama said yesterday.
In a letter to the US Congress, he said: “These personnel will support the operation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria and the surrounding area.
“The force will remain in Chad until its support in resolving the kidnapping situation is no longer required.”
France also has forces in Chad, while Britain and the United States have sent small teams of specialists to Nigeria to assist the Federal Government in the search for the girls.
“It has been a most difficult but heroic breakthrough,” one senior military official said in Abuja, according to Premium Times.
That claim was supported by another senior commander from the Army’s 7 Division, the military formation created to deal with the insurgency in the North-East. The 7 Division is headquartered in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.
The news is also key for the Maiduguri-based 7 Division a week after a humiliating mutiny by troops of its 101 battalion who fired at the General Officer Commanding the division, Ahmadu Mohammed, a Major General.
Military officers coordinating the search and other officials in Abuja said Boko Haram insurgents split the girls into batches and held them at their camps in Madayi, Dogon Chuku and Meri, all around the Sector 3 operational division of the military detachment confronting the group’s deadly campaign.
Another source said there is a fourth camp at Kangarwa, also in Borno State. That claim could not be independently verified.
Sightings
“Our team first sighted the girls on April 26 and we have been following their movement with the terrorists ever since,” one of our sources said.
“That’s why we just shake our heads when people insinuate that the military is lethargic in the search for the girls,” he added.
The location of the abducted girls — North-East of Kukawa — opens a new insight into the logistic orientation of Boko Haram, responsible for thousands of deaths in a five-year long insurgency.
President Goodluck Jonathan said the group had killed at least 12,000 people so far. This figure did not include the hundreds killed in a car bomb, Tuesday, in Jos and the about 10 murdered on Sunday in Kano in a suicide bombing.
Boko Haram’s movement
Details established by the military shows that while the world’s attention is focused on the Sambisa forest reserves, about 330 kilometres south of Maiduguri, the terrorists mapped a complex mission that began at Chibok, and veered north east of Sambisa, before heading to west of Bama and east of Konduga.
With the sighting, officials fear that Boko Haram militants may be seeking to create new options of escape all the way to Lo-gone-Et Chari in Cameroon to its South-East, Lake Chad to its east and Diffa in Niger Republic to its north, providing a multiple escape options in the event of hostile ground operations against it.
Notwithstanding the sighting, the government is said not to be considering the use of force against the extremists, a choice informed by concerns for the safety of the students. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
Please the strategy and progress made so far should not be made public till the battle is over and the girls finally rescued to avoid giving out information to Boko Haram informants.
ReplyDeleteThis is a complex task but with God all things are possible.
ReplyDeleteStrategy made public? I don't even trust our millitary commanders anylonger. US shld do their thing jare
ReplyDeleteOur people are dying every day, everywhere, everytime; yet we are more interested on blaming soldiers, the Government, and the insurgence. God is angry, He turned away from Israelites in battle and small Ai feasted on them because of one man’s sin (Achan), King Saul killed the Gibeonites against the covenant of God, and He allowed 3 years famine in Isreal. Hophni and Phinihas polluted the house of God, the judgment came upon the entire family. I can go on and on and on. God is angry, God is angry, Let us return back to God. (2 Chronicle 7:14). “Except the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keeps city, the watcham waketh but in vain”. (Psalm 127:1) GOD IS ANGRY, LET US RETURN TO GOD. You don’t use human soldiers to fight a war that is a consequence of evil, Boko Haram is not fighting for anyone, they are not invincible, the problem is that God is angry. Let us return to God. Let the religious leaders own-up their deceptions and repent, let political leaders own-up their evils and repent, then let us (all national) own-up our evil comments, wicked actions, immoral and abominable action and repent in dust and ashes, God is rich in mercy, he will forgive us and heal our land. Nigeria is God baby, God is actually acting on his character of ‘jealousy’ (Exodus 20:5) He is a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers to their sons to the third and fourth generations of those that hate Him. Let us return to God He will have mercy and heal our land. God bless Nigeria.
ReplyDelete