REVEALED: US Surveillance Planes Spot Chibok Girls in Nigeria

                         

The United States Surveillance flights over the north-eastern part of the country spotted the abducted Chibok girls in early July, the flight images showed what appeared to be large groups of girls held together in
remote locations, raising hopes among domestic and foreign officials that they are among the group that Boko Haram abducted from their school in April, US and Nigerian officials said. It will be the first time a near definite information about the location of the abducted schoolgirls will be made by the international forces who had offered to help search for the kidnapped girls.
Boko Haram appears to have seen the schoolgirls as of higher value, given the global attention paid to their plight, the officials said.
The report said the plane spotted a group of 60 to 70 girls held in an open field, quoting two U.S. defense officials.
“Late last month, they spotted a set of roughly 40 girls in a different field,” it said.
When surveillance flights returned, both sets of girls had been moved. U.S. intelligence analysts say they don’t have enough information to confirm whether the two groups of girls they saw are the same.
They also can’t say whether those groups included any of the girls the group has held since April. But U.S. and Nigerian officials said they believe they are indeed those schoolgirls.
“It’s unusual to find a large group of young women like that in an open space,” said one U.S. defense official. “We’re assuming they’re not a rock band of hippies out there camping.”
The Coordinator, National Information Centre, Mike Omeri, said he has no information on the reported sighting of the girls, but added that it tallied with the claim by the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal, Alex Badeh,  that the military knew where the girls are.
“I don’t have any information in this, but remember that the CDS had said the military knew where the girls are,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the international effort to find the girls has waned: The US military is now carrying out just one surveillance flight a day, mostly by manned aircraft, totalling only 35 to 40 hours a week, said US defence officials, as drones have been shifted back towards other operations.
But despite the seeming drop in global attention on the issue of the abducted girls, President Jonathan in Washington DC, yesterday called for a more effective global action and implementation of all existing international protocols against terrorism and violent extremism.