Not Less Than 4 foreign allies of Nigeria has offered special forces to help the country tackle its menace of terrorism, especially on the case of the 234 missing girls of the Chibok high school!
France on Wednesday offered Nigeria a “special team” to look for more than 200 girls kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram in an incident that has triggered global shock and condemnation.
The extremists seized a first batch of schoolgirls in Nigeria’s restive northeast three weeks ago, saying they were holding them as “slaves” and threatening to sell them, and have since kidnapped other girls in the area.
“A special team with all our resources in the region is at the disposal of Nigeria to help in the search and recovery of these young girls,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told parliament.
President Francois Hollande is due to hold phone talks with his Nigerian counterpart Goodluck Jonathan on the subject on Wednesday evening, sources close to the French leader said.
France already has troops on the ground in Mali not far away, where they continue to engage in intelligence gathering to further weaken armed Islamists in the north after driving them out of towns they had occupied for months.
“The president gave the defence minister and myself the order… to put our (intelligence) services at the disposal of Nigeria and neighbouring countries,” Fabius said.
Described as “heartbreaking” and “outrageous” by US President Barack Obama on Tuesday, the kidnappings have drawn several pledges of hel from the international community.
Washington has deployed military experts to Nigeria to help search for the girls and Britain has offered unspecified practical help.
Earlier Wednesday, French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll denounced the kidnappings as “one of the most atrocious forms of terrorism because it involves kidnapping and trafficking children.”
His comments came as Boko Haram this week kidnapped another 11 girls from a village in Borno state, the epicentre of the group’s five-year Islamist uprising.
And on Wednesday, witnesses and a local senator said the extremist group had staged a bloody attack in the northeastern town of Gamboru Ngala, firing on fleeing civilians and killing hundreds.
China has vowed to help Nigeria find more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militants, President Goodluck Jonathan said on Wednesday after meeting visiting Premier Li Keqiang.
“China promised to assist Nigeria in our fight against terror, especially in our commitment and effort to rescue the girls that were taken away from a secondary school,” he said following talks in the capital, Abuja.
Li for his part noted only that greater cooperation between the two nations could also include efforts to “oppose and fight terrorism” but did not give any details.
Nigeria has been in the grip of a raging insurgency in the north since 2009 but international attention has been grabbed by the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from a remote northeastern town three weeks ago.
Several countries, including the United States, Britain and France, have offered to assist in the hunt for the missing girls.
The response of Jonathan’s government has been criticised as weak and ineffective while Boko Haram’s claim of responsibility — and threat to sell the 223 girls still being held as slave brides — has stoked global anger.
Britain will send a small team of experts to Nigeria to help respond to the kidnap of more than 200 girls, a Downing Street spokesman said Wednesday.
The team will concentrate on planning, coordination and advice to local authorities rather than operations on the ground to look for the girls, who were seized by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram on April 14.
The team will fly to Nigeria “as soon as possible”, Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan accepted the offer when the two leaders spoke by telephone earlier Wednesday.
The experts will be drawn from government departments including the defence, international development and foreign affairs ministries and may include military officers.
US President Barack Obama has sent military experts to Nigeria to help in the search and the British team will complement their efforts.
Cameron’s spokesman could not say how large the team would be.
In his phone call with Jonathan, Cameron expressed his “shock at the appalling attack and wholehearted support for the Nigerian people”, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
“Both leaders also agreed that their respective governments should explore how to further strengthen co-operation on counter-terrorism in the longer term to prevent such attacks in the future,” she added.
“The prime minister and president agreed on the importance of the international community working together to meet the challenge posed by Islamic extremism and violence.”
Speaking in parliament earlier, Cameron condemned the kidnapping as “an act of pure evil”.
“It has united people across the planet to stand with Nigeria to help find these children and return them to their parents,” he told lawmakers.
Cameron said Britain had made “repeated offers of help” since the kidnap.
“This is not just a Nigerian issue; it is a global issue,” he added.
“There are extreme Islamists around our world who are against education, against progress, against equality and we must fight them and take them on wherever they are.”
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