Britain & US Reportedly Knew Location of 80 Girls Kidnapped by Boko Haram but Failed to Act

Parents of the Chibok girls hold a "Bring Back Our Girls" banner during their meeting with Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja, Nigeria, January 14, 2016. © Afolabi Sotunde Reuters

Britain and the US reportedly knew where Islamist militant group Boko Haram had taken at least 80 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls, but felt the risk was too great to launch a rescue operation, a former British diplomat has revealed.

In 2014, Boko Haram insurgents kidnapped 274 schoolgirls from a boarding school in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria. Though 57 of the girls managed to escape, the remaining 217 have not been seen since a video was released showing them reciting from the Koran a month after the abduction.

Mostly Christian girls forced to convert to Islam

Former British High Commissioner to Nigeria Dr Andrew Pocock has revealed that although British and American surveillance operations spotted a large group of girls, a rescue attempt would have been too risky.

“A couple of months after the kidnapping, fly-bys and an American ‘Eye In The Sky’ spotted a group of up to 80 girls in a particular spot in the Sambisa forest, around a very large tree, called locally the Tree of Life, along with evidence of vehicular movement and a large encampment,” Pocock told the Sunday Times.

“You might have rescued a few [girls] but many would have been killed. My personal fear was always about the girls not in that encampment — 80 were there, but 250 were taken, so the bulk were not there. What would have happened to them? You were damned if you do and damned if you don’t. 

“A land-based attack would have been seen coming miles away and the girls killed. 

Doesn't it get dark there at night?

Sambisa Forest

“An air-based rescue, such as flying in helicopters or Hercules, would have required large numbers and meant a significant risk to the rescuers and even more so to the girls.”

It was, and is a horrible situation. The lack of effort by anyone to rescue the girls was, and still is frustrating. One would think that with all the special forces in the world that there must have been a way to rescue them; but I certainly can't think of how it can be done even with some casualties. So, unfortunately, everyone has given up on the girls and left them to the mercy of Boko Haram, which has no mercy.

The kidnapping thrust the militant group into the spotlight and sparked an international outcry against what campaigners saw as the Nigerian government’s slow response, triggering the #BringBackOurGirls movement.

Campaigners believe the girls have been separated into small groups and taken to areas held by the militant group.

The group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), launched military operations in 2009, since which time the insurgency has left some 20,000 people dead and forced 2.5 million to leave their homes.

Nearly 300 Girls/Women Rescued from Boko Haram

This is great news, if it's true. Truth can never be assumed in Nigeria, but perhaps things are changing with a new President. We can always hope.

Nigerian Army celebrates

The Nigerian military says it has rescued 200 girls and 93 women from an area where the Islamist militant group Boko Haram is active.

No Chibok girls

However, it said the girls abducted from a school in Chibok in April 2014 were not among them.

The military said the girls and women were freed during operations ending in the seizure of four Boko Haram camps in the Sambisa Forest.

A military spokesman said they were now being interviewed.

Weapons were also seized at the camps which were taken in the latest operation, the military said.

In recent months Nigerian security forces have taken back most of the territory previously under the control of Boko Haram, the BBC's Tomi Oladipo reports from Lagos.

Last October the government said it had secured an agreement for a ceasefire and the release of the girls taken from Chibok, but Boko Haram subsequently denied this. That was under Goodluck Jonathon, who lied incessantly.

The abduction of the girls in Chibok sparked global outrage with many joining a campaign online to free them using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

Several nations including the US and China vowed to help find them and there have been reported sightings of the girls, but none has been found to date.

Meanwhile, the government of neighbouring Niger gave more details about fighting between its troops and Boko Haram on an island in Lake Chad over the weekend.

It says 28 civilians died when Boko Haram attacked Karamga island and that 46 of its troops died in the battle for the island, along with more than 150 militants. Reports in local media have given a much higher death toll for government forces.

Boko Haram's insurgency, and the army campaign against it, have killed more than 15,500 people since 2012. The violence has recently spread to neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

The Nigerian push-back appears to be pushing Boko Haram right out of the country.