Obama Administration Sends Team of Advisers to Help Nigeria Find Kidnapped Schoolgirls; No Military Aid

Demonstrators take part in a march in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to protest the government’s failure to recover scores of girls kidnapped from a boarding school in the northeastern village of Chibok. (Ruth McDowall / European Pressphoto Agency)

The Obama administration plans to send a team of advisors to help Nigerian officials rescue more than 270 girls abducted from a boarding school last month or negotiate their release, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has agreed to accept the assistance, Carney said. He noted the U.S. offer does not include military resources.

President Obama and Secretary of State John F. Kerry are meeting Tuesday to talk about the mass kidnapping and how the international community might help deal with the Islamic militants who claim credit for carrying it out and now threaten to sell the girls into slavery.

More than three weeks after the abductions, outrage is growing in Nigeria over the government’s failure to rescue the girls and to curb the terrorist group known as Boko Haram. The U.S. announcement followed news reports gunmen kidnapped eight more girls from another Nigerian village overnight.

Carney did not openly criticize the Nigerian officials for failing to locate and free the victims but did point out the crisis has now gone on for 22 days.

Click here to continue reading… 

SOURCE: CHRISTI PARSONS 
The Los Angeles Times