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Bradleigh-Ann Walker

Senior Content Editor
@urbanbeautyxo

Everyone is still holding out hope, and neither Nigeria nor the United States has given up in finding the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in April.

In another extension of the agreement between the two nations, the White House announced on Wednesday (May 21) that 80 troops, consisting mainly of Air Force members, have been sent to Chad to participate in rescue efforts.

“These personnel will support the operation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria and the surrounding area,” the White House statement said. The troops, however, will not be playing any role in searches done on the ground.

The U.S. already had a small group of intelligence personnel and law enforcement in Nigeria working with the government there before this deployment, and drones have been actively searching for the children since earlier this month.

Nearly 300 girls were kidnapped by Islamist extremist group Boko Haram from their boarding school in the middle of the night. Since then, an estimated 50 have escaped. Boko Haram announced plans via video to sell the girls into slavery; the group holds the idea that girls should be married, not pursuing an education.

Thanks to social media, calls for better rescue efforts have turned into protests and awareness worldwide.

Officials hold no illusions that this rescue mission will be easy.

“We’re talking about an area roughly the size of West Virginia, and it’s dense forest jungle,” the Pentagon press secretary, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said to reporters on May 20. “I don’t think anybody’s underestimating the level of difficulty in both finding them and then being able to launch some kind of recovery mission. It’s very difficult in terms of the geography, the actual size, just square miles, of what we’re trying to search.”

Some officials even believe that many of the kidnapped may have been smuggled into other countries.

To further complicate matters, the U.S. cannot share all of its raw intelligence information because Nigerian forces have a history of brutality. There’s a huge risk that the intelligence wouldn’t be handled correctly, and the children would be in even more danger.

Stay tuned to PopWrapped for the latest as the search continues.

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