Washington (AFP) – The United States expressed skepticism Tuesday that
\nmore than 200 schoolgirls held by Boko Haram militants had been located by
\nNigeria, stating that it had no “independent information” on the matter.<\/p>\n
The country’s highest ranking military officer on Monday said that Nigeria
\nhad located the missing teenagers, kidnapped mid-April by the armed
\nmilitant group.<\/p>\n
But one day later, US State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki told
\njournalists that the there was no “independent information from the United
\nStates to support these reports.”<\/p>\n
Asked whether she found it “smart” of Nigerian officials to announce they
\nhad found the girls — in the event that they had been located — Psaki
\nresponded that “for the girls’ safety and wellbeing, we certainly would
\nnot discuss publicly this sort of information.”<\/p>\n
With 80 US military personnel sent to neighboring Chad for intelligence,
\nsurveillance and reconnaissance, the United States is the biggest foreign
\nparticipant in the effort against Boko Haram.<\/p>\n
Washington has also deployed surveillance drones, spy planes and about 30
\ncivilian and military specialists to support Nigeria’s security forces.<\/p>\n
US authorities have previously expressed doubt that Abuja has the capacity
\nto conduct the rescue mission.<\/p>\n
State Department and Pentagon officials as well as members of Congress
\nhave chided Nigeria for what they called a slow response to the crisis and
\nfor human rights violations of which its army is accused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington (AFP) – The United States expressed skepticism Tuesday that more than 200 schoolgirls held by Boko Haram militants had been located by Nigeria, stating that it had no “independent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n