Israel has sent intelligence experts to Nigeria to help search for more than 200 schoolgirls abducted last month by the Boko Haram sect, an Israeli official told Reuters on Tuesday.
The team, which the official said included people experienced in dealing with hostage situations, will join a growing international effort to track down the children.
“These are not operational troops, they’re there to advise,” the Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The United States military is already flying manned and unmanned surveillance aircraft over Nigeria to look for the girls, whose abduction triggered a worldwide outcry and piled pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan to deal with the rebels.
Boko Haram has killed thousands of people in its campaign to establish an Islamic state in mostly Muslim northeast Nigeria.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, sent his team out about a week ago after discussing the situation with Jonathan, the official added.
Israel has defence ties with a number of African countries, and had sold surveillance drones to Nigeria. Last September, Israel sent advisers to Kenya to help in a stand-off with Islamist attackers at a shopping mall in Nairobi.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Monday vowed to invoke necessary sections of its laws including military might to fight Boko Haram.
Boko Haram now ravaging parts of the sub-region, especially Northern Nigeria abducted over 200 schools girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, over a month ago.
The girls are still in captivity.
Ghanaian President, John Mahama, spoke when he declared open the 2014 First Ordinary Session of ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja.
In their separate addresses, Senate President, David Mark and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, said Nigeria would continue to collaborate with the regional body to tackle the insurgency and insecurity.
Ekweremadu, specifically commended the Paris Summit, aimed at tackling the Boko Haram insurgency.
Mahama, who spoke through the Vice President of Ghana, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, condemned in strong terms the activities of Boko Haram and promised that the Sub-regional body would do everything possible to fight the insurgents.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Senate President, Paul Mumeh, in a statement in Abuja quoted the Ghanaian leader as saying “We condemn in the strongest of terms, the continuous killing of innocent Nigerians in parts of the North.
“We shall invoke relevant sections of our laws to fight this crime. The recent abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok is reprehensible and so disheartening. No decent society will accept this.”
Mahama urged ECOWAS Parliament to cooperate and support the governments of the sub region in the fight against insurgency.
Mark, who represented President Goodluck Jonathan, told the gathering that the Boko Haram activities have negatively affected the economic and socio- political life of Nigerians.
Mark said: “Terrorism and insurgency are alien to our culture. We must therefore stand united against it in all its ramifications.
“We will continue to seek regional and international collaboration in the fight against these crimes which by their nature are transnational.”
The Shehu of Borno, Dr. Abubakar Ibn Garbai, on Monday declared that the leaders of the Boko Haram sect are not indigenes of the state.
He made the remark when the Presidential fact finding committee on Chibok paid him a courtesy call at his palace on Monday.
According to a statement issued by the Spokesperson of the Committee, Kingsley Osadolor, the Shehu of Borno, described the abduction of over 200 secondary schoolgirls in Borno State as unfortunate.
“What is happening now is unfortunate. It’s entirely new to us. None of the leaders of Boko Haram is from Borno. They cannot claim to be from here. The problem was brought to us from elsewhere,” he stated.
Stressing that the people of Borno were peace-loving, he said the Borno Empire had been in existence for some 1,200 years.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Brig.-Gen. Ibrahim Sabo (rtd), recalled that Maiduguri which was a famous centre in the Trans-Sahara Trade, regretted that the city and the state had suffered severe socio-economic dislocation as a result of insurgency in recent years.
He said: “We are now in the main theatre where the Chibok schoolgirls were taken away against their will. The whole world is mobilised against the abduction, and we cannot be happy while our daughters remain in captivity.”
He said the committee had an open mind to the assignment.
“We are not here with preconceived notions. We are here to find facts that will lead to a resolution of the current hostage crisis involving the schoolgirls.”
Britain has offered to send advisers to help Nigeria’s military structure its efforts to fight Boko Haram, Foreign Minister William Hague said on Saturday, ahead of a meeting to hammer out a strategy to tackle the sect.
West African leaders are meeting in Paris to try to improve cooperation in their fight against the group which last month kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls and threatens to destabilise the wider region.
Outrage over the girls has prompted President Goodluck Jonathan, criticised at home for his government’s slow response, to accept United States, British and French intelligence help in the hunt for the girls.
“Nigerian security forces have not been well structured for this kind of thing and that has been shown by the problem getting worse,” Reuters quoted Hague as saying to reporters ahead of the meeting.
“We can help with that which is why we are offering to embed military advisers within the Nigerian headquarters.”
U.S. officials have said the effort to retrieve the girls is now a top priority, but has been complicated by Nigeria’s early reluctance to accept assistance, and U.S. rules banning aid to foreign forces that have committed human rights abuses.
“It is very important (Nigeria) upholds high standards of human rights and are well coordinated in their actions,” Hague said. “Nigeria has the main responsibility and must be the leading nation in tackling this and that includes to mount an effective security response and improve development.”
France, itself a target of Islamist militants for its military intervention against rebels in Mali, is bringing together Nigeria’s neighbours – Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Benin, and Western officials to the summit.
Snippets of the findings of the United States surveillance drones and satellites tracking the over 200 students abducted by the Boko Haram sect in Borno State are beginning to emerge.
Imagery from the drones and satellites shows suspected terrorists setting up temporary camps and moving through isolated villages along bush paths in the Northeast, according to reports from the US.
However, the exact location of the girls, who were shown in a video released early this week by their captors remains unknown.
Washington has shared the imagery with security agencies in Abuja, the Los Angeles Times reported ahead of Saturday’s summit of West African leaders in Paris where strategies to improve cooperation in the fight against the Boko Haram would be discussed.
American officials are said to be frustrated with what they perceived as the inability of Nigeria to act on fresh intelligence about the Boko Haram insurgents.
A US official familiar with the hunt for the girls said Nigeria’s security forces are hampered by poor equipment and training and have failed to respond quickly.
U.S. Defence officials confirmed earlier reports by Nigerian media that Boko Haram had split the girls into several groups after the April 14 abduction.
US officials on Thursday openly expressed their frustration with the planned rescue of the girls at a Senate hearing in Washington DC.
Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he has written to President Goodluck Jonathan asking him “to demonstrate the leadership his nation is demanding.”
“Despite offers of assistance from the United States and other international partners, the Nigerian government’s response to this crisis has been tragically and unacceptably slow,” Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said at a hearing of his panel.
State Department and Defense Department officials at the hearing said the Nigerian government’s failure to deal with abuses by its own military is a hurdle to U.S. cooperation.
Alice Friend, the Defense Department’s principal director for African affairs, told the committee that even as the U.S. is providing intelligence and satellite photos to help in the search, officials are being “exceedingly cautious about sharing information with the Nigerians because of their unfortunate record.”
The Pan Northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Thursday hit hard at the government handling of the Boko Haram insurgency and the abduction of the schoolgirls from Chibok, saying President Goodluck Jonathan’s response is a suggestion of a hidden agenda against the region.
The northern umbrella body also lampooned the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, for conducting what it called a mock trial of government officials on national television and concluded that the entire episode was a hoax.
In a statement entitled: “Insecurity and Government Ineptitude” and signed by the body’s Secretary General, Col. John Paul Ubah (rtd), the ACF expressed disappointment at the lack of seriousness on the part of the government in handling of the girls’ abduction and the entire insurgency.
The ACF noted that the President displayed lack of urgency in the handling of the issue until Nigerians poured out to the streets to demand government action, adding that the first lady on her part has taken steps to disrupt efforts by concerned Nigerians to free the abducted girls by claiming that nobody was missing.
The statement reads: “The Rapid Response Committee of the ACF met on Wednesday, the 14th of May, 2014 at the Forum’s Headquarters, Kaduna. The meeting reviewed the current state of insecurity in the country and resolved to issue the following press statement.
“That the response of the Federal Government, particularly President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan, to the abduction of over 200 students by Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno on the 14th of April, 2014, is disappointing.
“The President approached the abduction with neither a sense of urgency nor seriousness until ordinary Nigerians poured out on to the streets demanding greater action. The first lady remained characteristically disruptive of all efforts by concerned Nigerians.
“Her reaction to the street protests was to set up her own panel of inquiry to which she summoned federal and state government officials, including wives of Governors. She conducted a mock trial of the officials on live television and at the end of it, declared that no school girls were missing, suggesting that the entire story was some hoax constructed to embarrass her husband.
“The approach of the President to the tragic abductions of the Chibok girls is not much different from his handling of the entire insurgency war that has engulfed the North, especially the North East region since 2009. Even the President’s most ardent supporters readily agree that his prosecution of the insurgency war has been hesitant, feeble and half-hearted.
“The President hardly ever took action until he came under pressure to do so from people outside his government. The mounting pressure from local and international communities is now compelling him to talk of deploying more troops to confront the Boko Haram insurgents. His belated acceptance of help from foreign powers had come only after the abduction of over 200 young girls, stirring worldwide outrage.”
To see things for himself, President Goodluck Jonathan will on Friday visit Chibok village in Borno State where over 200 schoolgirls of Government Girls Secondary School were abducted by the Boko Haram sect over a month ago.
Apart from the girls’ abduction attracting global outrage, condemnation and assistance, the President had earlier set up a fact-finding committee to unravel the circumstances surrounding the abduction.
According to presidential sources, who do not want their names in print, the President will use the visit to access the situation in Chibok and also meet with the parents of the girls and other key officials.
The President, who is also scheduled to be in France this weekend,will meet with Heads of State and Government of Benin Republic, Chad, Niger and Cameroon on how to strengthen and intensify collaboration against Boko Haram and other criminal organizations.
Officials from the United States, Britain and the European Union are also expected to attend the Paris meeting to discuss a coordinated response to Boko Haram and terrorism.
The President last week Tuesday accepted the offer by US President Barrack Obama to deploy security personnel and assets to assist Nigerian troops in the search and rescue operation for the Chibok girls.
Other world leaders and Heads of State and Government, who have indicated interest in the search for the girls include British Prime Minister, David Cameron; French President Fancois Hollande, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya.
The Israeli government also promised to send its counter-terrorism experts to support and assist Nigerian security agencies in the effort.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, expressed his country’s commitment to help Nigeria in the fight against terrorism and also condemned the abduction of the girls.
Zuriel Prime Minster of St Vincent & The Grenadines
If to Educate means to give ‘Intellectual’ and ‘Moral’ instructions to someone, usually a child, then it is the responsibility of the society in which such children live to ensure their future generation are indeed, well educated, as a strategic tool of sustaining their economic and social security, for generations unborn. Many years ago, the United States was seen as the bedrock of intellectual education and the beacon of business and economic literacy to the rest of the world.
The last decade has seen an obvious shift of that trend, eastwards as more of the current generation of youths and children are, for the first time, open to the same technology platform as their counterparts in the West, but particularly the United States. As telecommunications frontiers has opened up, broadband makes for instant video calls across thousands of miles and across oceans, while the lightning speed fingers of Asian and African kids means talking to, contacting, sharing music with, or writing programs with their friends and relatives civilizations away in the US and Europe are just seconds, greetings, and perhaps a smile away these days.
Young boys and girls are a ready army into this very exciting trend and phenomena. They have become bolder than their parents’ generation, more inquisitive than their older siblings, and even more daring that those who led just barely 24 hours earlier.
One such child is a young Nigerian Girl – 11 Year Old Zuriel Oduwole. There is nothing special about her. She plays, has dreams, does house chores, runs errands for her parents, fights with her younger sister occasionally, rides her bicycle, plays video games, except that on the side, she bothers and interviews world leaders about the need to expand Girls Education in Africa, and also makes documentaries to tell her African story. Zuriel has met with and interviewed 1 in 6 of Africa’s Presidents and Prime Ministers, has been featured in global magazines like Forbes, and appeared on global TV networks like the BBC. She held a first Lady’s Colloquy last month in Nigeria to find practical solutions to the issue of Girls’ Education, and one day, hopes to be President.
There is nothing special about what Zuriel is doing, or perhaps maybe there is. But the definitive issue is she is educated and is still being educated, at age 11. That is what the girls in Chibok Secondary school were doing – getting an education, before they were taken away against their will. They were very much in line with what Zuriel is fighting for – the continued education of the African Girl Child.
Nigeria’s economy is for all practical purposes, in the hands of [2] women – the minister of finance, and the minister of petroleum. They are both very educated, and they were once the ages of Zuriel, and the Chibok Girls. They had dreams, and are perhaps living their dreams as key figures in the Nigerian Government.
Zuriel and Prime Minister of St Kitts & Nevis
Zuriel has now added more leaders to her list of very impressive interviewees, which now includes the Prime Minister of St Vincent & The Grenadines – The Honorable Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, and the Prime Minister of St Kitts & Nevis – The Right Honorable Dr. Denzil Douglas. She is making the case for educating the Girls in the Caribbean region, having a few months ago already sat down with the Prime Minister of Jamaica – The Right Honorable Portia Simpson Miller. But how can she hold court with world leaders and global business leaders such as Aliko Dangote whom she has also interviewed, if she was not educated.
Let’s Educate our Girls, lets release ALL of Nigeria’s potentials. There are many Zuriel’s out there, waiting to lift the country to its fullest potential. For the sake of the hurting parents and their families, lets secure the release of the Chibok school girls, so they can contribute to the full development of the emerging African brand, called Nigeria.
SIR: First let me offer my deep sympathies to the missing Chibok girls and their families. What they have been through, the unending injustice, frustration, pain, worry and fear, are almost too harrowing to consider at once. Our prayers go out on behalf of you and your families. May Almighty God provide safe and speedy return for as many as are still missing.
I heavily doubt there is a man more reviled today than Abubakar Shekau. Already drunk off the blood of thousands of innocent victims, he has now stepped up his campaign of terror to target school children. Perhaps it was the scale and impunity of the act, or the heart-breaking accounts of desperate parents trying to mount their own rescue mission into a dangerous forest, deterred only by the risk to their daughters’ lives; something snapped in the consciousness of a nation and world that had previously watched from afar. Whatever Shekau’s calculus was, he has definitely succeeded in drawing the outrage of even Al Qaeda leaders, for whom the kidnap and trafficking of young girls is apparently too extreme.
Indeed, the outcry, from Nigerians as well as the international community, has been nothing short of impressive, spurring action where there had previously been none. Nations with the best counter-terrorism operations have offered assistance, now received, in personnel and resources; voices heretofore silent about terrorism have begun speaking up specifically about Boko Haram. It seems now that credible efforts will be mounted, that the tide may yet turn, families made whole.
Yet, these positive developments come with a stark dose of reality. With each passing moment, locating and recovering the missing girls will only get harder. If, and hopefully when they are recovered, these children will need extensive medical and psychological assistance to overcome the trauma they have no doubt experienced at the hands of their captors.
Along with the aforementioned international statements of support has come stinging criticism about the handling of this tragedy by the state and federal governments. Equally disheartening was the finger-pointing and political sniping between the two. It is, to put it simply, shameful, and unworthy of the urgent plight of these girls. There will be time for heads to roll (and roll they must) but this is the time for cooperation an action. It is time to show Nigerians and the world that this government is capable of confronting all forces of disintegration and terror.
There is no doubt that the government has been very slow in grasping the seriousness of this abduction that has bought pains to parents and the nation as a whole.This administration was treating the abduction with business as usual attitude until there was a global outcry of Bring Back Our Daughters.There were conflicting information from agents of government as to the safety,whereabout and number of the girls that returned.The contradiction was so much that a US Senator concluded that there is no government in Nigeria. The way the government handled the unfortunate incident has brought to Nigerians shock, shame and embarrassment.
What this ugly incident has bought to the consciousness of Nigeians is the capability of the Nigerian military in terms of training, equipment and command structure to fight this insurgency effectively.The military deserves better funding to rid the nation of this menace soonest because negotiating with the insurgents should not be an option.The emergency rule in three affected states has not been been justified by the success of the insurgents in unleashing havocs on communities on daily basis in the North-east.Nigerians deserve more and demand more from government protection from all forms of terrorism that have been unleashed on our nation.
Finally, I believe Nigerians need to lift the veil of hypocrisy and look within. This country is a major international player in the trafficking of women and children for sex and cheap labour. This industry is fuelled, more than anything, by extreme poverty and desperation, the same factors that fuel political and religious terrorism. Even if and hopefully when Shekau and his followers are captured or killed, the circumstances that animate him will still exist and possibly spread, unless we put a credible effort toward making this country work for everyone.
The Federal Government on Wednesday said that it will leave no stone unturned in the bid to rescue the 234 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram on April 14.
The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, disclosed this while fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council.
According to him, the government was still studying the video clip released by the Boko Haram sect and the accompanying statement in order to know their real contents.
Maku urged all Nigerians to leave sentiments and emotions aside and concentrate on efforts they can make collectively to release the Chibok girls.
He also disclosed that an information centre had been opened to provide the public with daily development on the rescue operation.
He said that information coming from any other persons or groups on behalf of the federal government should be disregarded.
The minister said: “We have seen the video clip, we are studying it to be sure of its content. We are also looking into the statement that accompanied the clip. Government has made it very clear that we are ready to go to any length to secure the release of these our daughters that have been in captivity.
“That is the statement we have issued and we stand on that statement. Other statements that have been made from different groups should be discountenanced.
“This is a clear position of government that has been announced through the centre on daily reporting of events on the rescue effort and state of emergency in the North East.
Continuing, he said: “The press should as much as possible utilize the daily information from the centre and help put more light unto the issue.
“We are appealing to all Nigerians to leave sentiments and emotions aside and concentrate on efforts we can make collectively as a nation to rescue our girls.
“There has been a lot of pollution and information that may not be correct. We want to cut off Chibok from politics and that is why we are streamlining information.”
