Efforts by security agencies to rescue hundreds of schoolgirls in Boko Haram captivity are being hampered by fears that another militant group, Ansaru, may be involved. Ansaru (pictured), also called Jama’atu ansaril muslimina fi biladis Sudan (Vanguards for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa), are known to harm their hostages at the slightest indication that they are about to be rescued.
The security forces fear a “massive tragedy” if the insurgents decide to adopt the “Ansaru style” in resisting rescue operations. Nevertheless, they are making “considerable progress” in the search for the girls ─ with the support of UK, US and Israel, according to military sources.
On Monday, chief of defence staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, said the military had located the girls but could not act with force. He was speaking to members of the Citizen Initiative for Security Awareness (CISA), an NGO, who were on a solidarity campaign to the defence headquarters in Abuja. He said: “We want our girls back, I can tell you that our military can and will do it, but where they are held, can we go there with force? “Nobody should say Nigerian military does not know what it is doing; we can’t kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back.
“So we are working, the President has empowered us to do the work, anybody castigating the military, definitely there is something wrong with him. “The good news for the parents of the girls is that we know where they are, but we cannot tell you. “We cannot come and tell you the military secret, just leave us alone, we are working to get the girls back.” Badeh revealed that the fight against insurgency was quite different from full scale war, adding that “if we are fighting an external war, they would have been begging us to withdraw”.
