BringBackOurGirls protesters mount
pressure on Aso Rock


Protesters on Thursday were
taking their call for the release of more than 200
schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram to
Nigeria’s president, as US military personnel
headed to Chad as part of the rescue effort.
Demonstrators said they were intending to
march on Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential
villa in the capital, Abuja, to maintain pressure
on the embattled head of state to secure the
girls’ safe release.
“It is the wish of this movement that this
engagement will catalyse positive action
towards (the) quick rescue of our abducted
girls,” the #BringBackOurGirls campaign
coordinator, Hadiza Bala Usman, said in a
statement.
Previous street protests in Abuja have led to
meetings with lawmakers at the national
parliament, Nigeria’s national security adviser
and military top brass.
Thursday’s planned march comes after US
President Barack Obama announced that 80
military personnel had been deployed to Chad
to help find the 223 girls still missing since their
abduction on April 14.
Obama said in a letter to Congress that the
military contingent would stay in Chad until
their support in ending the crisis that has
triggered worldwide outrage “is no longer
required”.
“These personnel will support the operation of
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria and
the surrounding area,” he wrote.
- Schools shut -
The deployment marks a significant boost to
an existing US military effort which includes the
use of surveillance drones as well as manned
aircraft over Nigeria.
The Pentagon has criticised Nigeria for failing
to react quickly enough to the rise of Boko
Haram, who have been blamed for thousands
of deaths since 2009.
Jonathan’s administration had previously
resisted close cooperation with the West but
accepted help from US, British, French and
Israeli specialists amid a groundswell of
pressure fuelled by a social media campaign.
Nigeria is hoping to tighten the screws on Boko
Haram and has asked the United Nations
Security Council to proscribe the group, which
is said to have links to Al-Qaeda-linked
militants in north Africa.
President Jonathan has called the extremists
“Al-Qaeda in western and central Africa”,
underlining what Nigeria views as Boko
Haram’s threat to regional stability.
The United States and a number of other
countries have already designated Boko Haram
as a terrorist organisation in an attempt to cut
off any international support and overseas
funding for the group.
The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT)
meanwhile called for schools across the
country to shut to allow a “day of protest”
against the abduction of the girls from Chibok
on April 14.
“We remain resolute in our resolve to continue
the campaign… until our girls are brought back
safe and alive and the perpetrators of the
heinous crime are brought to book,” NUT
president Michael Alogba Olukoya said on
Wednesday.
- No let-up -
In the last five weeks, Boko Haram has stepped
up its campaign of attacks outside the
northeast worst affected by the insurgency,
leading to fears of an escalation of violence
across the country.
Hours before the girls’ kidnapping, the group
bombed a crowded busy station in the Abuja
suburb of Nyanya, killing 75. A copy-cat
bombing at the same location on May 1 left 19
dead.
On Tuesday, two car bombs ripped through a
busy market within 20 minutes of each other in
the central city of Jos, killing at least 118.
There are fears that the death toll could rise
further. The bombing — Nigeria’s deadliest —
was seen by experts as an indication of Boko
Haram’s intent to export violence and
demonstrate their capability to the international
community.
“They have sleeper cells all over the northern
part of the country and they’re activating
them,” said Kyari Mohammed, a Boko Haram
specialist and chairman of the Centre for Peace
Studies at Nigeria’s Modibbo Adama University.
“That’s what they’re going to do. We should
anticipate more attacks, especially if they (the
government and the international community)
are unable to solve the Chibok problem,” he
told AFP.
At the same time, there has been no let-up in
the bloodshed in Borno state, one of three in the
northeast which has been under a state of
emergency since May last year.
More than 50 people were killed in three
separate attacks this week. Two were near
Chibok on Monday and Tuesday, while the third
was near Gamboru Ngala, close to Lake Chad,
where a reported 300 people were killed last
month.

Culled from Vanguard