NEW YORK POST
Obama: I want to reach out and save the kidnapped Nigerian girls
By avasquez9 May 9, 2014 | 4:06am
Hundreds of protesters demonstrate outside the Nigeria
Consulate in South Africa to bring attention to the girls abducted in
Nigeria.
Photo: (Main) EPA (inset) AP
President Obama said he wakes up thinking of the Nigerian schoolgirls
abducted by Islamist extremists and facing a life as sex slaves, and
wishes he “could reach out and save those kids.”
“We only need to look at today’s headlines — the devastation of
Syria, the murders and kidnappings in Nigeria, sectarian conflict, the
tribal conflicts — to see that we have not yet extinguished man’s
darkest impulses,” Obama said at a Los Angeles fund-raiser late
Wednesday.
“I have this remarkable title right now — president of the United
States,” Obama said. “And yet every day when I wake up, and I think
about young girls in Nigeria or children caught up in the conflict in
Syria . . . there are times in which I want to reach out and save those
kids.”
Obama, speaking at an event for the Steven Spielberg-backed USC Shoah Foundation, was frustrated over the lack of a quick fix.
“Having to think through what levers, what power do we have at any
given moment, I think, drop by drop by drop, that we can erode and wear
down these forces that are so destructive, that we can tell a different
story,” he said.
On Thursday, government soldiers arrived in the town of Chibok, where 276 girls were kidnapped on April 14 by members of the brutal Boko Haram terror group, which threatened to sell them as sex slaves or force them into marriage.
The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau.Photo: AP
“There are about three military helicopters hovering around our town
and many soldiers have just arrived,” said Maina Chibok, whose
16-year-old daughter is in the extremists’ hands.
“They are moving and advancing toward the bush. We hope they succeed in rescuing our daughters.”
Secretary of State John Kerry said a small team of US advisers was in place to help the Nigerians.
And Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan vowed that the schoolgirls would be found.
“I believe the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end
of terror in Nigeria,” Jonathan said at Thursday’s opening of the World
Economic Forum for Africa in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown also addressed the kidnappings at the forum.
“All our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the more than
270 girls who were abducted and kidnapped and who are being held in
captivity,” said Brown, who is sending a special-forces team to Nigeria.
A mother of one of the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls wipes away tears during a rally for their release this week.Photo: AFP/Getty
Experts said a special-forces operation was the best hope for the girls’ safe recovery.
“I think, frankly, a military solution is one of the only ones that’s
going to work to free them without imbuing [Boko Haram] with the lesson
that terrorism pays,” said Steven Emerson, head of the Washington,
DC-based Investigative Project on Terrorism.
“I don’t think hostage negotiations are the right answer. That is
going to give a green light to them to demand anything they want.” .
He suggested that the United States send the elite Navy SEALs, the same unit that took out Osama bin Laden.
Emerson said they could handle terrain like the dense Nigerian forests and would be able to easily overtake the terror group.
“Boko Haram are a bunch of thugs with automatic weapons and that’s about it,” Emerson said. “The US can clearly take them out.”
Women of Nigeria made the world pay attention
May 8, 2014
FULL STORY
Map: Where the girls were kidnapped
A woman attends a
demonstration Tuesday, May 6, that called for the Nigerian government to
rescue nearly 300 schoolgirls who were kidnapped last month in Chibok,
Nigeria. The girls were taken by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram,
which means "Western education is sin."
Abuja Hosea
Sambido, a leader in the Chibok community, speaks during a rally in
Abuja, Nigeria, on May 6, pressing for the release of the abducted
girls.
Women march Monday, May 5, in Chibok.
People rally in Lagos, Nigeria, on Thursday, May 1.
Protesters take part in a "million woman march" on Wednesday, April 30, in Abuja.
Obiageli
Ezekwesili, former Nigerian education minister and vice president of the
World Bank's Africa division, leads a march of women in Abuja on April
30.
Mothers weep during a meeting with the Borno state governor on April 22 in Chibok.
Four female students who were abducted by gunmen and reunited with their families walk in Chibok on Monday, April 21.
Map: Where the girls were kidnappedA woman attends a
demonstration Tuesday, May 6, that called for the Nigerian government to
rescue nearly 300 schoolgirls who were kidnapped last month in Chibok,
Nigeria. The girls were taken by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram,
which means "Western education is sin."Abuja Hosea
Sambido, a leader in the Chibok community, speaks during a rally in
Abuja, Nigeria, on May 6, pressing for the release of the abducted
girls.Women march Monday, May 5, in Chibok.People rally in Lagos, Nigeria, on Thursday, May 1.Protesters take part in a "million woman march" on Wednesday, April 30, in Abuja.Obiageli
Ezekwesili, former Nigerian education minister and vice president of the
World Bank's Africa division, leads a march of women in Abuja on April
30.Mothers weep during a meeting with the Borno state governor on April 22 in Chibok. Four female students who were abducted by gunmen and reunited with their families walk in Chibok on Monday, April 21.
Nigerians attend a demonstration calling on the government to rescue the schoolgirls May 6th.Photo: AP 
Michelle Obama tweeted about saving the Nigerian schoolgirls.Photo: Twitter via @FLOTUS
Malala Yousafzai, the world's most famous advocate for girls' right to education, says that "girls in Nigeria are my sisters." This photo was posted to the @MalalaFund Twitter account on May 6. Golden Age of Gaia
Huge Social Media Campaigns Demand Rescue of 276 Kidnapped Nigerian Schoolgirls
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