US advisers reach Nigeria to help look for kidnapped schoolgirls

Protesters demonstrate after the kidnapping of more than 300 Nigerian school girls by terrorist organization Boko Haram, helmed by Imam Abubakar Shekau (bottom right). Secretary of State John Kerry (top right) has pledged to do everything possible to bring the girls back to their families.

(by Laura Italiano, NYPost) – A task force of US military advisers and hostage negotiators landed in Nigeria on Friday to help the government rescue the nearly 300 kidnapped schoolgirls and fight the menace of Boko Haram.

The team is composed of six military experts from the US Africa Command and one State Department official, Secretary of State John Kerry said.

A British team landed later Friday, and China, France and Spain have also promised help.

“Sent team of law enforcement, intelligence & military experts,” Kerry posted during a Twitter town hall meeting Friday.

“Will use sophisticated counter-terrorism efforts to assist.”

Asked whether he believed the girls can be found, Kerry tweeted, “Too early to conclude. Team arriving. Very difficult situation. Determined to do everything we can to help.”

The team will first do a “gap analysis,” meaning an assessment to identify what the Nigerian military needs in its search for the girls that the US could provide, Pentagon officials said.

The team will also help with hostage negotiations, a State Department official said.  [Note: The Pentagon is the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense.   The U.S. State Department is the federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States.]

The captives’ whereabouts remains a much-debated mystery, with the Pentagon believing the girls have been split up, and many experts fearing that they have been transported to Boko Haram strongholds in neighboring Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said Friday that he believed the abducted girls remained in his country’s dense Sambisa forest, though he offered little evidence beyond a vague reference to “experts” using “remote sensors.”

“If they move that number of girls to Cameroon, people will see, so I believe they are still in Nigeria,” Jonathan told reporters.

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