Schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria

[blugiant]

I'm going to put a different spin on this. Western influence has directly caused the kidnapping or abduction of these children. Western influence has an obligation to safely reunite these children to their parents.

Let's put aside politics and focus on the most important issue in this situation. The safe return of these children to their families...after that mission is accomplished, we can discuss the politics of the region.

Innocent children should not be used as a pawn of politics.

cyaan putt politrixxx aside

da artikkles chatt bout western influences before da kidnappinn ann oww dem were tryinn fe gitt dem. da qwestian iss woo finance dem peeps ann natt dat simplististrikk analysis oyinbo media tryinn fe spin. itt remind mii aff oww dem spin da alamo fe force da mexicans fe sell texas

da realitee iss dat de afrikkans need fe unite ann deal widd diss situation widdout western spin.

iff a fimi dawtah mii wood do wateva itt took fe form mii own group ann dunn dem cah dem crass a line ann no goinn bakk fram dat

[blugiant]

Michelle Obama demands justice for Boko Haram kidnap girls in White House's weekly radio address

Michelle Obama took over the president's weekly radio address
She spoke about the kidnap of hundred of girls from their school dormitory by Nigerian terrorists Boko Haram
She called the act 'unconscionable' and said it was 'grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls'
The leader of Boko Haram has threatened to sell the kidnapped girls into slavery
President Obama said this week that the U.S. will do everything to help Nigeria find them.



Michelle Obama on Saturday criticized the kidnapping of scores of Nigerian schoolgirls as an 'unconscionable act' carried out by a terrorist group she said is determined to keep them from getting an education - 'or grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls.'

Taking over the president's weekly radio and Internet address on the eve of the American holiday for honoring mothers, the first lady said that, like millions of people around the world, she and President Barack Obama are 'outraged and heartbroken' over the April 15 abduction of the girls from their dormitory.

'In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters,' Mrs. Obama said, referring to Malia, 15, and Sasha, 12. 'We see their hopes, their dreams and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now.'

What happened in Nigeria is not an isolated incident, the first lady said, but is 'a story we see every day as girls around the world risk their lives to pursue their ambitions.'

Mrs. Obama mentioned the case of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who survived being shot in the head as she traveled to school in 2012. Malala has become an outspoken advocate for the rights of all girls to get an education, the same message Mrs. Obama delivered in her first solo address to the nation.

Mrs. Obama noted that more than 65 million girls worldwide do not attend school even though educated women earn more money and have healthier families.

'When more girls attend secondary school, that boosts their country's entire economy,' she said. 'So education is truly a girl's best chance for a bright future, not just for herself, but for her family and her nation.'

Mrs. Obama recently launched a domestic initiative called "Reach Higher" to encourage young people to pursue education beyond high school, whether they enroll in a professional training program or attend a community college or a four-year institution.

In Saturday's address, the first lady asked the nation to pray for the Nigerian girls' safe return.

'This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education - grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls,' she said. 'Let us hold their families in our hearts during this very difficult time, and let us show just a fraction of their courage in fighting to give every girl on this planet the education that is her birthright.'

The Nigerian government's inability to rescue the girls nearly a month after they were abducted by the Boko Haram organization has sparked worldwide outrage, including protests and a social media campaign. The U.S. and other countries have sent teams of technical experts to assist the Nigerian government's search effort.

Authorities have said more than 300 girls were abducted from their school in the country's remote northeast. Fifty-three escaped and 276 remain captive.

President Obama said this week that the U.S. will do everything to help Nigeria find them.

Boko Haram means 'Western education is sinful.' The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, has claimed responsibility for the abduction and has threatened to sell the girls.

President Barack Obama made the rare move of giving his wife the responsibility of delivering the White House's weekly radio address on Saturday.

The move is an unusual one but not unprecedented: Laura Bush gave a similar address in 2001 when she was first lady, denouncing the treatment of women in Afghanistan.

Mrs. Obama has also joined the president in a few radio addresses, but Saturday marked her first solo appearance.

In a photo seen around the world, the first lady posed Thursday with a hand-written sign reading #BringBackOurGirls.

'Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families,' she wrote in a message that accompanied the picture.

The president said Wednesday night at a Los Angeles fundraiser for Democratic candidates that he was anguished over 'the murders and kidnappings in Nigeria.'

'Every day when I wake up, and I think about young girls in Nigeria or children caught up in the conflict in Syria . . . there are times in which I want to reach out and save those kids,' he told an audience of donors who paid tens of thousands of dollars to her him and late-night comic Conan O'Brien speak.

The leader of Boko Haram has threatened to sell the kidnapped girls into slavery, and is reportedly holding them prisoner in a giant Nigerian forest the size of West Virginia.

Nigerian military forces have refused to enter what locals call the 'evil forest' because of the high levels of terrorist activity there.

Not everyone has heaped praise on the first lady's push on Twitter to raise awareness about the girls.

'I would love to see the girls freed. I would love to see Boko Haram wiped out,' Fox News Radio's John Gibson said Friday.

'But for the life of me I cannot figure out how hashtagging helps,' he added.'

Except. To. Make. The. Hashtagger. Feel. Good. About. Himself.'

And conservative radio flamethrower Rush Limbaugh said Thursday that a Twitter campaign shows that the U.S. is too impotent to intervene.

'It's unbelievable ... what message does this send?' he asked on his daily broadcast.

'Is the United States really this powerless? And then if you answer yes, we are really this powerless, then isn't Obama to blame?'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2624714/Michelle-Obama-White-Houses-weekly-radio-address-demand-justice-Boko-Haram-kidnap-victims.html

[blugiant]

New Boko Haram video claims to show some of the kidnapped girls full video

bbc version

[blugiant]

Christian Chibok Girls Who Didn’t Convert To Islam: What Is Their Fate?


Just watching the video right now and praying for the safe return of the kidnapped female students in Borno state Nigeria.

In the video, Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau said he has liberated the girls by converting them to Islam, though he didn’t specify how many of them…… the video only showed about 100 of the 276 students still missing.

Last week, a viral video of terrorists slaughtering some girls surfaced online but it was later revealed that it didn’t happen in Nigeria.

Now that Shekau has converted some and NOT all to Islam, I wonder what will now happen to the few of them who rejected his offer of conversion.

Last week, a Nigerian evangelist said that most of the 200 plus schoolgirls kidnapped by terrorist group Boko Haram are Christians, which he says is further evidence of the militant Islamists’ specific targeting of followers of Christ.

“Chibok local government is 90% Christian. Majority of the girls abducted are Christian! Why did Boko Haram visit Chibok local government? Why didn’t they visit so many other local government girls secondary schools in Borno State?”

Please remember all the students in your prayer.

http://naijagists.com/christian-chibok-girls-who-didnt-convert-to-islam-what-is-their-fate/

[blugiant]

Nigeria Police Move Against #bringbackourgirls Protesters in Abuja


Armed police officers on Sunday shoved protesters demanding the rescue of the 276 abducted school girls, after initially blocking their access to the venue of their meeting in central area of Abuja city.

Over 50 police men took over the Unity Fountain venue and tried to forcibly prevent protesters from their daily sit-in.

The demonstrators are asking for a more decisive effort by the government to rescue the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from their secondary in Chibok, Borno State, nearly a month ago.

There is an ongoing international effort to assist in locating and rescuing the girls. New reports say the girls may have been split into units and moved from Sambisa forest in Borno state where they were initially believed to be held.

The Nigerian government's first crackdown on the protesters last week sparked widespread condemnation.

The leader, Naomi Mutah Nyadah, was arrested by the police reportedly on the orders of First Lady, Patience Jonathan. She was released amid public uproar.

Sunday's sit-in was attended by a former education minister, Oby Ezekwesili, and a former House of Representatives member, Dino Melaye.

Indications the authorities were planning to stop the meeting emerged early Sunday as officers were drafted to the venue of the rally as early as 7am.

At about 8.30am, a sound system company that was setting up speakers and microphones for the rally was ordered out of the Unity Fountain.

The meeting finally held as protesters refused to be cowed by the armed officers.

"Despite all the security opposition & intimidation, we held the #bringbackourgirls meeting successfully," one protester tweeted.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201405110453.html

[lonewolf]

Over 700 people were killed by former President Gbagbo’s supporters

da realitee iss dat de afrikkans need fe unite ann deal widd diss situation widdout western spin.

Yes, I agree. I don't want the US sticking their nose in anyone else's business. But, I would make an exception in any case involving the abduction and slaughter of innocent children...and Blu, if it was your child you would not give a damn of how your child was returned, or whom was invovled, only that your child was returned safely.

Blu, don't forget about this...


Over 700 people were killed by former President Gbagbo’s supporters
Article | January 30, 2013 - 11:22am | By Agency Reports
The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has said that more than 700 civilians were slain by forces loyal to former Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, between 2010 and 2011.

In a report presented at the Hague on January 28, Bensouda said Gbagbo, his wife, Simone, and a former Minister of Youth and Employment, Charles Ble Goude, were the principal actors in the civil unrest that led to the death of many people, rape cases and injuries.

The report was posted on-line by Ivorian local newspaper, L'Expression, on Tuesday in Abidjan.

The ICC report was made public barely three weeks to the commencement of the trial of the former president who was arrested on April 11, 2011 and handed over to the ICC in December, 2011.

In a 77 paragraph report to the ICC, Bensouda detailed the instructions by the former president and his wife to security outfits, and militia groups to unleash violence on supporters of President Alassane Ouattara.

``Between Nov. 27, 2010 and May. 8, 2011, the pro-Gbagbo forces led attacks against civilians who were loyal to Ouattara during which 700 persons were slain, 40 ladies were raped and more than 520 persons were arrested, detained and tortured.'' She said more than 140 persons were physically assaulted and injured.

The detailed report listed dates and times of the attacks by various groups that were loyal to the former president.

Bensouda said the attacks were all pre-meditated as the former president recruited militias into the army, the police and the secret service while extending sponsorship to violent groups that burnt many people alive.

She said the former president recruited mercenaries from Liberia, who openly hunted and slew Ouattara supporters, some times invading communities of muslims and Northerners.

The ICC prosecutor said Burkinabes, Nigeriens and Nigerians were also slain by forces loyal to the former president because of their government's endorsement of Ouattara.

http://www.dailytimes.com.ng/article/over-700-people-were-killed-former-president-gbagbo%E2%80%99s-supporters

[Emperah]

Amerikkka is fully involved in alla dis, probably a cia plot who tell an gi money tuh dese Boka clowns.
Tell dem fi guh tek de children so amerikkka can fly dem drones in Nigeria which they told they couldn't b4.
Nigerian and other states have been under pressure from Amerikkka and repeatedly tell de obama regime we will govern our own affairs. None a wah dem a tell wi mek sense.

Gov propagamda.jpg

What dis smaddy write mek sense tuh I as well

I thought the situation in Nigeria was suspicious.
Then I saw this photo, now I know it's suspicious.
The coverage of the case of the Nigerian girls had many red flags: a cartoonish villain with perfectly packaged and vile quotes, innocent children, inability of reporters to source even the most basic confirmation of facts, vague and deniable inferences about what exactly happened etc.
Propaganda is defined as information disseminated by government which is designed to promote a certain point of view, especially if it is bias in nature.
Are we under the illusion that this is somehow not propaganda?
One could be fans of the Obama / H. Clinton / Cheney style policies and their aggressive warmongering, drones, bombings, spying and support of anti freedom policies like the Patriot Act and violence...but to deny that this is propaganda is to deny reality.
Always be cautious when government is making an effort to market something and use emotion to influence citizens. It means that the idea doesn't stand on it's own merit and logic and that there is someone 1) powerful enough to influence the highest levels of government who 2) has an agenda.
Follow the money,

[blugiant]

Amerikkka is fully involved in alla dis, probably a cia plot who tell an gi money tuh dese Boka clowns.
Tell dem fi guh tek de children so amerikkka can fly dem drones in Nigeria which they told they couldn't b4.
Nigerian and other states have been under pressure from Amerikkka and repeatedly tell de obama regime we will govern our own affairs. None a wah dem a tell wi mek sense.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2422[/ATTACH]

What dis smaddy write mek sense tuh I as well

sum aff da artikkle state dat deer was western invalvement butt fe reduce itt to onlee merikka iss short sighted

mii chatt bout da alamo ann oww da led to amerikka invalvement butt da peeps aff nigeria askinn fe amerikkan involvement

[blugiant]

Yes, I agree. I don't want the US sticking their nose in anyone else's business. But, I would make an exception in any case involving the abduction and slaughter of innocent children...and Blu, if it was your child you would not give a damn of how your child was returned, or whom was invovled, only that your child was returned safely.

Blu, don't forget about this...


Over 700 people were killed by former President Gbagbo’s supporters
Article | January 30, 2013 - 11:22am | By Agency Reports
The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has said that more than 700 civilians were slain by forces loyal to former Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, between 2010 and 2011.

In a report presented at the Hague on January 28, Bensouda said Gbagbo, his wife, Simone, and a former Minister of Youth and Employment, Charles Ble Goude, were the principal actors in the civil unrest that led to the death of many people, rape cases and injuries.

The report was posted on-line by Ivorian local newspaper, L'Expression, on Tuesday in Abidjan.

The ICC report was made public barely three weeks to the commencement of the trial of the former president who was arrested on April 11, 2011 and handed over to the ICC in December, 2011.

In a 77 paragraph report to the ICC, Bensouda detailed the instructions by the former president and his wife to security outfits, and militia groups to unleash violence on supporters of President Alassane Ouattara.

``Between Nov. 27, 2010 and May. 8, 2011, the pro-Gbagbo forces led attacks against civilians who were loyal to Ouattara during which 700 persons were slain, 40 ladies were raped and more than 520 persons were arrested, detained and tortured.'' She said more than 140 persons were physically assaulted and injured.

The detailed report listed dates and times of the attacks by various groups that were loyal to the former president.

Bensouda said the attacks were all pre-meditated as the former president recruited militias into the army, the police and the secret service while extending sponsorship to violent groups that burnt many people alive.

She said the former president recruited mercenaries from Liberia, who openly hunted and slew Ouattara supporters, some times invading communities of muslims and Northerners.

The ICC prosecutor said Burkinabes, Nigeriens and Nigerians were also slain by forces loyal to the former president because of their government's endorsement of Ouattara.

http://www.dailytimes.com.ng/article...99s-supporters

icc iss a racist joke ting cah itt disproportionateleee goo aftah afrikkans

[blugiant]

Nigeria: Rights Group - Nigerian Authorities Were Warned of Raid On Girls' School



PENTAGON — Meanwhile, Amnesty International says Nigerian security forces had advance warning about the raid on the girls boarding school.

The human rights group says security forces failed to act on warnings that began coming in more than four hours before Boko Haram fighters attacked the school in the town of Chibok on April 14.

The rights group blamed the lack of action on an "inability to muster troops," due to poor resources and a possible fear of engaging with the often better-armed militants.

Amnesty said Friday that it learned of the warnings from local officials and two senior military officers. There was no immediate reaction from the Nigerian government.

The U.N. Security Council Friday expressed its outrage at the abductions. It welcomed efforts by the international community to provide assistance to Nigeria to find the girls. Speaking on behalf of the council, South Korean Ambassador Oh Joon said the council will consider taking measures against Boko Haram.

"The members of the Security Council expressed their intention to actively follow the situation of the abducted girls and to consider appropriate measures against Boko Haram," said Joon.

Time running out

The Pentagon says most of its team has arrived in Nigeria to assist in the search for the nearly 300 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. But officials warn time may be running out.

"In any hostage situation time is at a premium and there's no question we're racing against the clock here," Pentagon spokesman Admiral John Kirby said Friday.

Six experts from the U.S. Africa Command landed in the Nigerian capital Abuja Friday morning, joining 10 U.S. personnel who are already there. They aim to help Nigeria with communications, planning and intelligence analysis in the search for the girls.

"We're not talking about U.S. military operations in Nigeria to find these girls," Kirby specified." That's not the focus here."

No drones planned

Despite concerns time may be running out to locate the missing girls, as of now the U.S. will not be using drones to help in the search, putting the weight on the Nigerian military instead.

Kirby said the U.S. is urging Nigeria to "use all the resources at their disposal" to rescue the girls. He said Washington had previously offered assistance to the Nigerian government but the offer was not accepted until this week.

He said in addition to rescuing the girls held by Boko Haram, the U.S. will also continue working with Nigeria on counter-terrorism.

"The Nigerians are very aware of the threat that Boko Haram poses to them and to their national security," Kirby noted.

Britain has also sent a team to Nigeira to assist in the search, expecting to work closely with the Americans. British officials say in addition to working on a rescue, the team will be looking at ways to help defeat Boko Haram.

Where are the girls?

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum for Africa, WEFA, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said he believed the schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militants last month have not been moved to neighboring Cameroon.

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

Jonathan's government has been criticized for its slow response to the hostage crisis since the abductions and it was the first time he spoke about where he thinks the girls are being held.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who spoke at the forum, said he empathizes with the parents of the missing girls in their anguish over the possibility that they may be murdered, trafficked or forced to become sex slaves.

Social media protests

For weeks, activists in Nigeria and around the world have been holding rallies demanding the rescue of the girls and sending out Twitter blasts with hashtags like #BringBackOurGirls and #ChibokGirls.

One group promosed to out-tweet the forum's #WEFA hashtag. Their success was partially due however, to the fact that participants and organizers were also tweeting #BringBackOurGirls.

WEFA said in response to the kidnapping, delegates also worked to design programs specifically aimed at helping to secure school children in northern Nigeria.

"We launched a safer-school initiative here," explained Philipp Rosler, managing director of the World Economic Forum. "So the business community said 'OK, we must do something.' And they put together their money - $10 million - the beginning of a special fund to make schools safer."

Some Nigerians are skeptical about whether fancy conferences can actually touch real people's lives.

But forum officials say they are determined to try to solve the disparity problem because it breeds the type of insecurity that allows insurgency to thrive.

Health concerns

Parents and relatives of some of the girls abducted from their Chibok secondary school in northeastern Nigeria are reportedly suffering from a variety of stress-related diseases including heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure.

A grandfather of three of the abducted girls, Mani Chibok who spoke to VOA's Hausa service, said stress levels shot up when news broke that the girls have been forcibly married to Boko Haram insurgents who took them away.

Mani, who is also a district head, said several other parents have resorted to hunger strikes to increase pressure on authorities to find the missing students.

Another Chibok resident, Shettima Abba, also told VOA Hausa that other parents have been taken to hospitals due to poor health attributed to the abduction of the girls.

VOA's Heather Murdock contributed to this report from Abuja

Jeff works out of VOA's Washington headquarters covering a wide variety of subjects, from the nature of the growing terror threat in Northern Africa to China's crackdown on Tibet and the struggle over immigration reform in the United States. You can follow Jeff on Twitter at @jseldin or on Google Plus.

[blugiant]

Scared but alive: Video purports to show abducted Nigerian girls

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/12/world/africa/nigeria-abducted-girls/

The girls sit quietly on the ground, dressed in traditional Islamic garb, barely moving, clearly scared.

"Praise be to Allah, the lord of the world," they chant.

The video, released by French news agency Agence France-Presse, purports to show about 100 of the 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram fighters nearly a month ago. It's the first time they've been seen since their abduction April 14.

In separate shots included in the 27-minute video, a man says he will release the girls only after imprisoned members of Boko Haram are freed, according to AFP.

The man identifies himself as Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau. Nigerian officials disputed that claim on Monday, arguing that Shekau is dead. Other experts say the notorious terror group leader is still alive.

Whoever the man in the video is, Nigeria's interior minister said, the country isn't interested in negotiating a swap anyway, according to AFP.

But at a later briefing, the director of the National Orientation Agency, a government information ministry, said negotiations could be an option when it comes to rescuing the kidnapped girls.

When asked whether all options were on the table, agency Director Mike Omeri said yes.

"The government of Nigeria will continue to explore all options for the release and safe return of our girls back to their respective homes," Omeri told CNN.

The road to Boko Haram's heartland

Experts reviewing video

If authentic, the video released Monday is the first glimpse of the girls since Boko Haram fighters snatched them from a boarding school in the northern Nigerian town of Chibok.

A senior administration official told CNN that U.S. officials have no reason to question its authenticity.

"Our intelligence experts are combing over every detail of the video for clues that might help in the ongoing efforts (to) secure the release of the girls," the official said.

The abductions have resulted in worldwide outrage directed at the terror group and an influx of Western counterterrorism and law enforcement experts to help Nigeria fight it.

Filmed in a nondescript clearing surrounded by scrub and trees, the girls appear dressed in gray or black veils. Many look nervous or under duress. In one shot, a girl almost whispers a line from the Quran.

In separate shots filmed against a green backdrop, the man who claims to be Shekau says the girls -- who come from a Christian stronghold -- have converted to Islam.

He appears to open a window to the possibility of negotiating a swap: the girls for Boko Haram prisoners held by Nigeria.

"By Allah, these girls will not leave our hands until you release our brothers in your prison," he said. "You took our brothers four or five years ago, and now they are in your prisons. You do many things, and now you talk of these girls. We will not let them go until you release our brothers."

But he also says he still plans to sell them into slavery.

Some observers took the video as encouraging.

Not only would it prove that at least some girls are alive and unharmed, said retired U.S. Maj. Gen. James "Spider" Marks, a CNN military analyst, it also gives intelligence analysts something with which to work.

Nigerian government officials also took notice. The governor of the state where Chibok is located, Borno, ordered officials to distribute the video to parents to help identify the girls.

Gov. Kashim Shettima "views the development as encouraging, especially given the fact that some of the girls said they were not harmed," his office said in a statement. "The governor hopes that the girls did not speak under duress."

Despite the optimism, Marks said it will still be painfully difficult to find and rescue the girls after a month in the terror group's custody.

"We have to lower our expectations, sadly, as to what we think this result and outcome is going to look like," he told CNN's "New Day."

A daring escape

A CNN team made the dangerous journey to Chibok to gather firsthand accounts of the abductions.

Before the gun-wielding Islamist militants rode into town, residents said they got cell phone calls that the feared extremist group was on the way. Family and friends from surrounding villages told them of a convoy of cargo trucks, pickups and motorcycles.

Residents said they passed along warnings to local authorities that night. Police called for reinforcements, but none came. Everyone, including police, fled into the bush. But the girls remained asleep in their dorms.

CNN's Nima Elbagir toured the school, gutted by militants as they fled, and spoke with one of the girls who managed to escape Boko Haram fighters that night.

The girl told Elbagir how she made a dash for freedom after militants loaded them into trucks and drove them into the nearby Sambisa Forest.

"We ran into the bush," she said of her escape with two others. "We ran and we ran." Lost and terrified, she said, they later ran toward flames they presumed were rising from a building set ablaze by the militants in their hometown.

The escapees were lucky. The missing girls probably have been separated and taken out of the country by now, officials said.

"The search must be in Niger, Cameroon and Chad, to see if we can find information," said Gordon Brown, the former UK prime minister and a U.N. special envoy for global education.

But Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said he believes the girls are still in the forest where the militants disappeared shortly after their capture.

Who's the man in the video?

Government officials disputed Monday that the man in the video with the girls is Shekau.

Security forces have confirmed and are sure Shekau is dead, said Marilyn Ogar, deputy director of State Security Services in Nigeria. "So whoever is speaking as Abubakar Shekau is not Abubakar Shekau."

The same man appears in Boko Haram videos claiming to be Shekau at least as far back as August. And at least one expert doubted Ogar's claim.

Jacob Zenn, an expert on Boko Haram at the Jamestown Foundation, a policy center based in Washington, said he is skeptical of the Nigerian claim unless it can be backed up with hard evidence.

He said Nigerian authorities have said Shekau was dead several times, only for him to resurface and for the Nigerian military subsequently to acknowledge that he was alive.

"The two recent videos after the abduction of the girls look similar to most of the images, voice and mannerisms of Shekau in almost all Boko Haram videos, including videos when he was a local imam in northeastern Nigeria before 2010," Zenn said.

If the government's assertion turns out to be untrue, it wouldn't be the first time it has been wrong about the terror group since the girls' abductions. Early in their disappearance, government officials said many of the girls had been recovered -- news that, sadly, turned out to be incorrect.

Global search effort

While experts analyze the video, the international effort to find the girls is gaining steam.

U.S. and British officials are in the capital of Abuja to help look for the girls, plan rescue missions and advise on ways to quash the terror group.

The United States is providing manned Defense Department aerial surveillance planes over Nigerian territory and sharing commercial satellite images with Nigeria as part of efforts to find the girls, two senior Obama administration officials told CNN's Elise Labott on Monday.

China and France are also helping in the search. Israel plans to send a team of counterterrorism experts to help, Jonathan's office said Sunday.

The United States has said it has no plans to send combat troops.

The U.S. team is working to help the Nigerian military plan operations and boost its capacity, providing investigation and intelligence support, advising on hostage negotiations and other issues, a senior State Department official told Labott.

Why did help arrive so late?

The United States offered assistance immediately after the mass abductions, but Nigeria turned it down until it became apparent that the situation needed a greater response, senior U.S. State Department officials told CNN.

Last week Secretary of State John Kerry said that the United States has been engaged since Day One.

An explosive report Friday accused military commanders of knowing the terror group was headed to the school at least four hours in advance. However, the report said, they were unable to raise enough troops to respond.

The findings by human rights group Amnesty International mirror accounts by parents and villagers, who described to CNN an ineffective military response in the days and weeks after the abductions.

Nigeria's information and defense ministries disputed the report.

The moment the Nigerian government heard of the kidnappings, "we went in to action," Information Minister Labaran Maku said.

"We shouldn't turn this into a trial of the Nigerian government."

[Emperah]

dat awtical poas if from amnesty international an who tell more ditty lie pan blk countries den dem?

[lonewolf]

Always be cautious when government is making an effort to market something and use emotion to influence citizens. It means that the idea doesn't stand on it's own merit and logic and that there is someone 1) powerful enough to influence the highest levels of government who 2) has an agenda.
Follow the money,

That's an excellent statement. Very true.

icc iss a racist joke ting cah itt disproportionateleee goo aftah afrikkans

I don't think that's true. It's a christian vs muslim vs control over a region that (Nigeria) sells 40 percent of its oil supply to the United States.

[blugiant]

dat awtical poas if from amnesty international an who tell more ditty lie pan blk countries den dem?

dread mii poas propaganda fram boat side cah peeps affii read disscerninnlee

[blugiant]

US Planes Search For Abducted Chibok Girls

The US has revealed it is flying manned surveillance missions over Nigeria to try to find more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

The US is also sharing commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerian government, officials said.

It comes after militants released a video of about 130 girls, saying they could be swapped for jailed fighters.

Boko Haram seized them from a school in the northern Borno state on 14 April.

“We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are flying manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets over Nigeria with the government’s permission,” said a senior administration official, who declined to be named.

A team of about 30 US experts – members of the FBI and defence and state departments – is in Nigeria to help with the search.

Washington says the types of aircraft deployed have not been revealed, but the US has sophisticated planes that can listen into a wide range of mobile phone and telecommunications traffic.

BBC News

http://www.africanexaminer.com/us-planes-search-for-abducted-chibok-girls/