Nigeria's government defends its actions as more girls are abducted
Nigeria's government defends its actions as more girls are abducted
Nigeria defended its response to the kidnapping of hundreds of
schoolgirls by the terror group Boko Haram, even as details emerged
Tuesday about a second mass abduction, adding to a growing global
outrage over the fate of the children.
President Goodluck
Jonathan has been under fire over accusations the government initially
ignored and then later downplayed the abduction of the girls, who have
become the focal point of a social media campaign demanding their safe
return.
"The President and the
government (are) not taking this as easy as people all over the world
think," Doyin Okupe, a spokesman for Jonathan told CNN.
"We've done a lot -- but
we are not talking about it. We're not Americans. We're not showing
people, you know, but it does not mean that we are not doing something."
In detailing the government's response, two special battalions have been
devoted to the search for the missing girls, Okupe said. That includes
250 locations that have been searched by helicopters and airplanes.
It was unclear whether
these were additional troops being dispatched or were forces already in
place. More troops, he said, are also on the way.
But the father of two of
the schoolgirls taken by Boko Haram told CNN there has been no sign of
the military in the days and weeks following the abduction.
He accused the government of "playing" with the parents of the missing girls, treating them as "fools."
"Had there been these
military men who went into the bush to rescue our daughters, we would
have seen them," said the father, who declined to be identified for fear
of reprisals by the government and the terror group. "...We have never
seen any military man there."
U.S. offer of military help
In a sign that Nigeria
may be bowing to international pressure and outrage, the government
announced the creation of an information center dedicated to answering
questions and providing daily updates about rescue efforts, Okupe said.
Nigeria's President also accepted an offer of U.S. military support in the search for the girls.
"So what we've done is — we have offered, and it's been accepted — help from our military and our law enforcement officials," U.S. President Barack Obama told NBC News on Tuesday. "We're going to do everything we can to provide assistance to them."
That help includes the
creation of a "coordination cell" to provide intelligence,
investigations and hostage negotiation expertise, U.S. State Department
spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. The cell will include U.S. military
personnel, she said.
The joint coordination
cell will be established at the U.S. Embassy in the capital of Abuja,
and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the work is expected to
begin immediately.
But even as the help was
offered to Jonathan, new details were emerging about the abduction of
at least eight girls between the ages of 12 and 15, who were snatched
Sunday night from the village of Warabe.
The village is located
in the rural northeast, near the border of Cameroon, an area considered a
stronghold for Boko Haram, a group that U.S. officials say has received
training from al Qaeda affiliates.
Villagers in Warabe told
CNN that gunmen moved from door-to-door late Sunday, snatching the
girls and beating anybody who tried to stop them.
The latest abductions
come amid international outcry over the April 14 kidnapping of more than
200 girls. According to accounts, armed members of Boko Haram
overpowered security guards at an all-girls school in Chibok, yanked the
girls out of bed and forced them into trucks. The convoy of trucks then
disappeared into the dense forest bordering Cameroon.
Boko Haram: A bloody insurgency, a growing challenge
'Western education is sin'
Boko Haram translates to
"Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language, and the group
has said its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law
across Africa's most populous nation, which is split between a majority
Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.
The United States has
branded Boko Haram a terror organization and has put a $7 million bounty
on the group's elusive leader, Abubakar Shekau.
In recent years, the group has stepped up its attacks, bombing schools, churches and mosques.
But it is the abductions
of girls that has spawned the biggest outrage, with a
#BringBackOurGirls campaign that initially began on Twitter and then
quickly spread with demonstrators taking to the streets over the weekend
in major cities around the world to demand action.
6 reasons why the world should demand action
On Tuesday, the United
Nations human rights chief blasted Boko Haram, saying the group's claim
of slavery and sexual slavery of girls are "crimes against humanity."
"The girls must be
immediately returned, unharmed, to their families," U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a news release.
'I abducted your girls'
A man claiming to be
Shekau appeared in a video announcing he would sell his victims. The
video was first obtained Monday by Agence-France Presse.
"I abducted your girls. I
will sell them in the market, by Allah," he said, according to a CNN
translation from the local Hausa language. "There is a market for
selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will
sell women. I sell women."
In the nearly hourlong, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for an end to Western education.
"Girls, you should go and get married," he said.
Pillay, along with three
other African United Nations women leaders, sent a letter reminding the
Nigerian government of its "legal responsibility to ensure that girls
and boys have the fundamental right to education and to be protected
from violence, persecution and intimidation," according to her
statement.
In the United States, all 20 women serving in the Senate signed a bipartisan letter calling on Obama to take action.
"More can be done by
this administration. I would like to see special forces deployed to help
rescue these young girls. Some of these girls are as young as nine
years old," Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told CNN. "...They're
being sold into slavery, forced into marriages, required to convert.
This is just horrible."
More than 355,000 people, including celebrities and lawmakers, to date have signed a change.org petition that calls upon the world to act to save the girls.
The petition calls on Jonathan and the government "to ensure all schools are safe places to learn, protected from attack."
'You can never rule out surprise'
Nigerian Minister of
Information Labaran Maku told CNN that despite international reaction
and media reports, there have been some successes in combating Boko
Haram.
But when asked about
bombings in Abuja, which came the same day as the mass abduction of
schoolgirls, he said: "In the case of insurgency and guerrilla warfare,
you can never rule out surprise here and there."
He also declined to
agree that misinformation released by the military in the aftermath of
the April kidnapping added to the growing outrage.
First, the military said
all the girls had been released or rescued. But after the girls'
families began asking where their daughters were, the military retracted
the statement.
"When they made that statement, it was based on a report they received," the minister said.
Nigeria's finance
minister said Monday that her country's government remains committed to
finding the girls but should have done a better job explaining the
situation to the public.
"Have we communicated
what is being done properly? The answer is no, that people did not have
enough information," Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Comments