Nigeria, under GEJ rejected British offer to rescue seized Chibok schoolgirls by guardian.com
RAF mission detected Boko Haram kidnappers but action was refused
British armed forces offered to attempt to rescue nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, but were rebuffed by Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s president at the time, the Observer has learned.
In a mission named Operation Turus, the RAF conducted air reconnaissance over northern Nigeria
for several months, following the kidnapping of 276 girls from the town
of Chibok in April 2014. “The girls were located in the first few weeks
of the RAF mission,” a source involved in Operation Turus told the Observer. “We offered to rescue them, but the Nigerian government declined.” The girls were then tracked by the aircraft as they were dispersed
into progressively smaller groups over the following months, the source
added. Chibok is located in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno state. Today 195 of the girls are still missing. Those who have managed to escape from their kidnappers have told of a life of torture, enslavement, rape, and forced marriages in captivity. Notes from meetings between UK and Nigerian officials, obtained
through the Freedom of Information Act, also suggest that Nigeria
shunned international offers to rescue the girls. While Nigeria welcomed
an aid package and assistance from the US, the UK and France in looking
for the girls, it viewed any action to be taken against kidnapping as a
“national issue”. “Nigeria’s intelligence and military services must solve the ultimate problem,” said Jonathan in a meeting with the UK’s then Africa minister, Mark Simmonds, on 15 May 2014.
Ex-President, GEJ
A document summarising a meeting in Abuja in September 2014 between
Nigeria’s national security adviser and James Duddridge MP, former
under-secretary of state at the Foreign Office, shows Operation Turus
had advanced to the point where rescue options were being discussed.
Minutes from a meeting the following month between Major-General James
Chiswell and Jonathan hinted at the frustration felt by those trying to
prompt some action from Nigeria.
“[President] Jonathan was still focused on ‘platforms’. General
Chiswell said again we could offer advice on what equipment might make
sense and how weapon systems might be best deployed,” the October 2014
document stated. The Nigerian government did not respond to a request for comment. The
Foreign Office said: “We wouldn’t comment on specific operational
details, which are a matter for the Nigerian government and military.” Jonathan has drawn criticism at home and abroad for a lack of action
and perceived apathy over the kidnappings. The government was slow to
mount any response in the weeks after the girls were taken. The governor
of Borno, Kashim Shettima, also publicly criticised Jonathan for
failing to even call him or any other state official for 19 days after
the kidnappings. Jonathan also hit out at the worldwide #BringBackOurGirls campaign, branding it a “manipulation” of the victims of the attack. Boko Haram had raided the dormitories of the government secondary
school at Chibok. The girls staying there had braved warnings of an
attack to sit their final examinations. Boko Haram
looted the school and then burned it to the ground. The kidnappings
also blighted the lives of the girls from the town who were not taken
away, as many have been too scared to continue their education. In addition to Nigeria, Boko Haram is active in regions of Cameroon,
Chad and Niger. According to Unicef, more than 1.3 million children have
now been displaced. Some of those taken by Boko Haram have been forced
to become child soldiers: one in five suicide bombers in Nigeria are
believed to be children, and three-quarters of those are girls.
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