Pressure Intensifies for Nigeria to Find Missing Girls
International pressure is mounting on the government of Nigeria to do more to find the 276 school girls kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram.
Meanwhile, the Muslim terror group has struck again, attacking a marketplace in Gamboru Ngala.
Estimates of the number of dead vary from 100 to possibly hundreds of people. Boko Haram had already murdered thousands of Nigerians in its mission to turn the nation into an Islamic caliphate under Sharia law.
The group has promised to sell the girls as sex slaves. Some of their families have lost faith in the Nigerian government to find them.
What is Boko Haram's goal with these teenage girls? CBN News Terror Analyst Erick Stakelbeck explains, on CBN Newswatch, May 8.
"We don't feel Nigeria can help get our daughters back," one father said.
The United States is sending a 10-member military team to Nigeria's capital of Abuja; specialists in logistics and intelligence.
But the search area for the missing girls, the Sambisi Forest Reserve in northeast Nigeria, is remote and huge.
"I think the one thing that's almost certain is that the young girls are no longer together," Retired U.S. Gen. Carter Ham said. "They've almost certainly are dispersed in small groups or even individuals."
At the World Economic Forum today, Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan said the kidnapping could be a turning point in the fight against Boko Haram.
"I believe that the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end of terror in Nigeria," he said.
But the kidnapping, as well as Boko Haram's repeated attacks, have sparked accusations that the Nigerian government is not doing enough to stop the militants.
"The government of Nigeria has been, in my view, somewhat derelict in its responsibility toward protecting boys and girls, men and women in northern Nigeria over the last years," former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
The Nigerian government has offered a $300,000 reward for any information that leads to the return of the missing girls.