Britain joins in search for kidnapped Nigerian girls

LAGOS, Nigeria – The international effort to rescue the 276 schoolgirls being held captive by Islamic extremists in northeastern Nigeria was boosted Friday when British security experts joined the Nigerian and American forces trying to rescue the missing students.

As the worldwide effort got underway, the weakness of the Nigerian military was exposed in a report issued by Amnesty International.

Britain said its aim was not only to help with the current crisis but to defeat Boko Haram.

“The team will be considering not just the recent incidents but also longer-term counterterrorism solutions to prevent such attacks in the future and defeat Boko Haram,” the Foreign & Commonwealth Office said in a statement Friday.

The American team was joined by six additional military officers and more are expected soon, Pentagon spokesman Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said. The U.S. officers will do an assessment to identify what the Nigerian military needs that the U.S. could provide in the search for the girls, he said.

China, France and Spain have also promised help.

Demonstrations in support of the missing Nigerian girls have been held around the world and a social media campaign – dubbed #BringBackOurGirls – continued to grow.

The weakness of the Nigerian armed forces was highlighted Friday in a report which said the military did not respond to warnings that Boko Haram rebels were about to attack Chibok, the town where the young women were abducted from their school.

Nigerian security forces had four hours of notice about the attack by the rebels but did not react because of their fear of engaging the extremists, said Amnesty International, in a report citing multiple interviews with credible sources.

“This abduction could have been prevented,” Amnesty spokeswoman Susanna Flood said.

The critical report reinforced earlier Associated Press reporting in which a Chibok official said he had alerted the military of the impending attack but no reinforcements arrived, allowing the insurgents to abduct the schoolgirls.

The mass kidnapping of the schoolgirls has focused the world’s attention on Boko Haram and on the response of President Goodluck Jonathan’s government.

“I believe that the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end of terror in Nigeria,” Jonathan said at an economic forum Thursday.

Boko Haram has staged many attacks in northeastern Nigeria over the years, a campaign of bombings and massacres that has intensified in recent times despite a strong military presence there. Since May 2013, there has been a state of emergency in three northeastern Nigerian states wracked by Boko Haram violence.