US to send military personnel to Nigeria

(Vatican Radio) The U.S. military is sending personnel to Nigeria to “advise and assess” as more than 200 school girls remain in the clutches of radical Islamic kidnappers from the terrorist group Boko Haram. President Barack Obama's administration has announced plans to establish a "coordination cell" of experts in Nigeria to bolster efforts to find the girls, whom Boko Haram has threatened to sell into slavery.

It is a move that would be appreciated by the Archbishop of Jos, Ignatius Kaigama.

“Nigerians are terribly apprehensive and we are asking our government to intensify efforts to liberate of these girls, and to liberate all Nigerians from the menace of Boko Haram,” said Archbishop Kaigama. “We are hoping, too, that help can come from outside – from America, from Europe. We should join hands in order to conquer this group that intends to spread terrible destruction, not only in Nigeria, but in West Africa, in Africa, and maybe beyond.”

Nigeria's police have offered a reward to anyone who can help locate and rescue the girls, who were taken in the middle of last month. Eight other girls, aged 12 to 15, were abducted on Sunday night after two villages were attacked.

“It is a terrible tragedy of immense proportion to see our young girls of school age being treated in such inhuman manner,” Archbishop Kaigama told Vatican Radio.

“I shudder in fear when I just imagine what these young girls could be going through in the forest with men who have no human feelings. Men who will treat them like objects,” he said.

Boko Haram – which means “Western education is sinful” - has been fighting in the northeast of Nigeria for five years, stating its aim as establishing an Islamic state.

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