Recent U.S. surveillance flights over northeastern Nigeria showed what
\nappeared to be large groups of girls held together in remote locations,
\nraising hopes among domestic and foreign officials that they are among the
\ngroup that Boko Haram abducted from a boarding school in April, U.S. and
\nNigerian officials said.<\/p>\n
The surveillance suggests that at least some of the 219 schoolgirls still
\nheld captive haven\u2019t been forced into marriage or sex slavery, as had been
\nfeared, but instead are being used as bargaining chips for the release of
\nprisoners.<\/p>\n
The U.S. aerial imagery matches what Nigerian officials say they hear from
\nnorthern Nigerians who have interacted with the Islamist insurgency: that
\nsome of Boko Haram\u2019s most famous set of captives are getting special
\ntreatment, compared with the hundreds of other girls the group is
\nsuspected to have kidnapped. Boko Haram appears to have seen the
\nschoolgirls as of higher value, given the global attention paid to their
\nplight, those officials said.<\/p>\n
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who faces re-election in February,
\nis under political pressure to secure the girls\u2019 release, with some people
\nurging him to agree to a prisoner swap.<\/p>\n
His government has ruled out a rescue operation, saying it is unwilling to
\nrisk the girls\u2019 lives, or a prisoner swap.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t exchange innocent people for criminals. That is not in the
\ncards,\u201d said Mr. Jonathan\u2019s spokesman, Reuben Abati, last week in an
\ninterview.<\/p>\n
In early July, U.S. surveillance flights over northeastern Nigeria spotted
\na group of 60 to 70 girls held in an open field, said two U.S. defense
\nofficials. Late last month, they spotted a set of roughly 40 girls in a
\ndifferent field.<\/p>\n
When surveillance flights returned, both sets of girls had been moved.
\nU.S. intelligence analysts say they don\u2019t have enough information to
\nconfirm whether the two groups of girls they saw are the same, they said.<\/p>\n
They also can\u2019t say whether those groups included any of the girls the
\ngroup has held since April. But U.S. and Nigerian officials said they
\nbelieve they are indeed those schoolgirls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unusual to find a large group of young women like that in an open
\nspace,\u201d said one U.S. defense official. \u201cWe\u2019re assuming they\u2019re not a rock
\nband of hippies out there camping.\u201d<\/p>\n
A wave of intermediaries acting on their own has tried to negotiate the
\ngirls\u2019 release, Mr. Abati said, adding that the president has neither
\nauthorized nor discouraged those efforts.<\/p>\n
Several of those intermediaries have said Boko Haram\u2019s leader, Abubakar
\nShekau, has ordered his fighters to treat the girls as valuable
\nhostages\u2014not sex slaves\u2014one senior Nigerian security adviser said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gave a directive that anybody found touching any of the girls should
\nbe killed immediately,\u201d the adviser said. \u201cIf true, it is cheering.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would also show that Boko Haram is trying to follow an al Qaeda tactic
\nof swapping hostages for money and political gain.<\/p>\n
The group is accelerating its kidnapping of foreigners and politicians:
\nOver the past two months, it has been blamed for abducting a German
\nexpatriate, 10 Chinese laborers in nearby Cameroon and the wife of
\nCameroon\u2019s deputy prime minister.<\/p>\n
Boko Haram has used hostages in the past to demand the exchange of its
\nprisoners held in both Nigeria and Cameroon, which was one of the
\nconditions for the release of a French family from captivity last year.<\/p>\n
Now, the group appears to be testing the bargaining power of a group of
\ngirls who had been ordinary teenagers at a school\u2014until their abduction on
\nthe night of April 14. That night, fighters with the Islamist
\ninsurgency\u2014which is opposed to modern education\u2014 stormed a boarding school
\nand drove 276 girls away hours before their final exams. Fifty-seven later
\nescaped.<\/p>\n
The captivity of the rest became a cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre, prompting a Twitter
\ncampaign, #BringBackOurGirls, that was joined by notable figures including
\nMichelle Obama and Hillary Clinton. It also spurred Boko Haram\u2019s latest
\neffort to get its captives released from crowded Nigerian prisons\u2014a
\nlong-standing grievance. Three months after seizing the girls, Boko
\nHaram\u2019s leader, Mr. Shekau, appeared in a video demanding a prisoner
\nexchange. \u201cYou are saying bring back our girls,\u201d thundered the bearded
\ngunman, before firing his AK-47 into the air. \u201cWe are saying bring back
\nour men!\u201d
\nDozens of demonstrators still gather in the capital each day to press for
\nthe girls\u2019 freedom.<\/p>\n
Their rallies have become a referendum on whether Nigerian
\nwomen\u2014particularly poor, young, Muslim girls\u2014are valued by a government of
\nmostly wealthy, elderly, Christian men.<\/p>\n
Mr. Abati said Mr. Jonathan has worked tirelessly to win the girls\u2019 freedom.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t clear how many of the girls Boko Haram can deliver. A former
\nNigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who has a history of contact with
\nthe group, has said some of the girls are likely dead or pregnant. Only
\nabout 130 of them\u2014out of 219 missing\u2014 appeared in the sole video of the
\ngirls that Boko Haram has ever provided.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the international effort to find the girls has waned: The U.S.
\nmilitary is now carrying out just one surveillance flight a day, mostly by
\nmanned aircraft, totaling only 35 to 40 hours a week, said U.S. defense
\nofficials, as drones have been shifted back toward other operations.
\nSome accounts suggest the burden of providing for scores of girls has
\nbecome a point of dissension in Boko Haram\u2019s ranks.<\/p>\n
In July, four girls and women aged 16 to 22 hid in their bedrooms as Boko
\nHaram fighters broke into their home in the town of Damboa, they each said
\nin an interview last week. They feared they would be kidnapped.<\/p>\n
When their aunt, Fatima Abba, argued on their behalf, the roughly 20 Boko
\nHaram insurgents decided not to kidnap them\u2014and instead began to complain
\nabout the scores of schoolgirls they already have.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are always crying. They behave like children,\u201d Ms. Abba quoted the
\nBoko Haram fighters as saying of the schoolgirls. \u201cWe don\u2019t want them
\naround.\u201d<\/p>\n
Culled from wsj.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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