A former British envoy to Nigeria, Dr Andrew Pocock, has disclosed that the United States and the United Kingdom knew the whereabouts of about 80 of the Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram, but failed to launch a rescue mission.
Pocock further claimed that a large group of the missing girls were spotted by UK and US surveillance overflight officials shortly after their disappearance, but experts felt nothing could be done.
The search for the girls is nearly two years old, specifically 24 days away from two years of excruciating Boko Haram captivity, by #BringBackOurGirls’ countdown; one wonders if the tardy revelation which would have galvanised support for a rescue attempt at a time of Jonathan government’s incompetent bumbling skepticism, is of any use now that they have been dispersed and virutally untraceable by his successor.
The former UK envoy, who made the revelation in an interview with The Sunday Times of London, added that Western governments felt “powerless” to help as any rescue attempt would have been too risky with Boko Haram terrorists using the girls as human shields.
Pocock said: “A couple of months after the kidnapping, fly-bys and an American ‘eye in the sky’ spotted a group of up to 80 girls in a particular spot in the Sambisa forest, around a very large tree, called locally the Tree of Life, along with evidence of vehicle movement and a large encampment.”
According to Pocock, the Chibok girls were there for at least four weeks, but authorities were ‘powerless’ to intervene, saying however that the Federal Government under former president Goodluck Jonathan did not ask for help.
He said: “A land-based attack would have been seen coming miles away and the girls killed; an air-based rescue, such as flying in helicopters or Hercules, would have required large numbers and meant a significant risk to the rescuers and even more so to the girls.”
In an investigation by Christina Lamb for the Sunday Times magazine, Pocock said the information was passed to the Nigerians but they made no request for help.
A former canon at Coventy Cathedral, Dr. Stephen Davis, who spent several years attempting to negotiate with Boko Haram, said the insurgents “make ISIS look like playtime” and said it is “beyond belief” that the authorities both in Nigeria and the West do not know where the schoolgirls are.
Davis insists the locations of the camps where the girls are being kept are well known and can even be seen on Google maps. He added: “How many girls have to be raped and abducted before the West will do anything?”
Boko Haram members had stormed the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Chibok in Borno State almost two years ago on April 14, 2014 and seized about 276 girls who were preparing for end-of-year examination.
Although 57 of the girls managed to escape, the rest have remained missing and have not been heard from or seen since, apart from in May that year, when 130 of them appeared in a Boko Haram video wearing hijabs and reciting the Koran.
-Leadership
