The United States of America on Friday said it had decreased its surveillance flights in the search for the about 200 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram, but added that the overall effort was unchanged due to more flights by other countries. It stated that it had no idea of the location of the girls.
“We don’t have any better idea today than we did before about where these girls are, but there’s been no letup of the effort itself,” Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters, according to Reuters.
A US defence official speaking on condition of anonymity said American flights had been reduced only after a body of intelligence had been gathered and that the cuts had been offset by the British and the French support.
Officials declined to say how long heightened U.S. surveillance over Nigeria had lasted.
Asked whether it was just a week or two, the defence official said, “No. We were building this baseline for a good period of time.”
US surveillance flights over Nigeria were now intermittent, the source said. US military personnel are in Abuja in a bid to help coordinate the effort, and some 80 others were sent to Chad in May to support the surveillance operation.
Chad is northeast of Nigeria and borders the area in which Boko Haram is known to operate.
One US official voiced concerns that Boko Haram might have booby-trapped areas where the girls could be held, and there had been reports that they might have been split up into groups that were not being held in one place.
The defence official said surveillance alone would not lead to a resolution. “It will take the Nigerian piece of the equation with their own sources and human intelligence coupled with the other forms to really understand the picture,” he noted.
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