The Twitter campaign and daily headlines have faded, but Pentagon officials are still trying to rescue nearly 300 Nigerian school girls from the bloody clutches of Boko Haram, the African jihadist group whose murderous campaign against its Christian countrymen continues unabated.
The cause that gripped the globe less than a month ago, when the horrific detail of the girls’ abduction was followed by a vow from Boko Haram’s leader to sell the young women, has only become more dire as time has passed. While the U.S. has not put boots on the ground to aid Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s effort to rout the terror group, it is advising local forces and operating an array of drones above the skies of northeastern Nigeria.
“Boko Haram’s kidnappings and other deplorable attacks on civilians have not been forgotten about by the Defense Department,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Myles Caggins told FoxNews.com. “We continue to work day and night to find these girls.”
Caggins said a variety of manned and unmanned aircraft are being used to try to pinpoint the girls, who are believed to be held in one of several encampments in a lawless, 20,000-square-mile forest in northeastern Nigeria. The girls were taken April 15 from a school in Chibok in northern Nigeria. Dozens escaped, but the group’s leader threatened on video to sell most of the remaining 276 schoolgirls into slavery if the government does not release detained militants.
When asked if the U.S. had plans to send in troops on the ground, Caggins said the DOD is “not exploring options” beyond locating the girls and that, “We’re not going to go into another country without invitation.
“All the Nigerians have asked us to do currently is find the girls and share information about their whereabouts,” he said.
