As Nigerians continue to expect the US Marines to arrive in the country to assist the Nigerian military operatives in the fight against terrorism, latest intelligence reports gathered by the US have added a new twist to the missing 276 school girls in Chibok, Borno State.
According to
an article published by CNN today, the task of recovering the girls appeared to grow more complicated with news that U.S. intelligence believe the 276 girls might have been dispersed by the Boko Haram terror group.
"We do think they have been broken up into smaller groups," U.S. Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, was quoted in the report made public some minutes ago.
The American Navy man however, declined to reveal more detail on how U.S. officials came to the conclusion. It could be recalled that this is not the first time that this sentiment has been echoed, as some other concerned people have said recently that the girls might already have been moved out of Nigeria into neighbouring countries.
"The search must be in Niger, Cameroon and Chad, to see if we can find information," former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the U.N.'s special envoy for global education, told CNN few days ago.
"It's vital to use the information to find the girls before they are dispersed across Africa, which is a very real possibility." The missing girls have not been seen since Boko Haram militants abducted them on April 14 from the Government Girls Secondary School in rural Chibok, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Maiduguri and some 600 miles from the capital of Abuja.
That was followed on Sunday night by another kidnapping, with villagers in Warabe accusing Boko Haram militants of taking at least eight girls between the ages of 12 and 15.
However, Nigeria's embattled leader, President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday vowed that Boko Haram's abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls would be the terror group's undoing.
President Jonathan's statements come amid mounting international outrage over the mass abduction and the government's largely ineffective effort to subdue Boko Haram.
By God's grace, we will conquer the terrorists. I believe the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end for terror in Nigeria," Jonathan said at the opening of the World Economic Forum meeting in Nigeria's capital city of Abuja.
The president also confirmed the offers of help from the US, Britain, China and France.
Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shakau, via a video the terror group posted online this week, claimed responsibility for the mass kidnappings. "I abducted your girls," he taunted in the video, first obtained by Agence France Presse. "There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell."
Former negotiator between Boko Haram and the government, Shehu Sani, believes the group targeted the girls to force concessions from the Nigerian government -- beginning perhaps with the release of its followers from prisons.
"The fact Shekau said he would sell the girls and did not say he would kill them is a clear indication that negotiation is possible. Shekau's video is not going to be the last word from the group on the girls," he said.
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