JUST IN: US Troops Arrive Chad To Find Missing Schoolgirls
Latest reports inform that the US has deployed 80 military personnel to Chad to help find more than 276 schoolgirls kidnapped inside the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State on 14 April, 2014.
Skynews reports that President barack Obama confirmed the deployment in a letter he sent to House Speaker John Boehner and to Senate lawmakers.
* US President, Barack Obama
It was reported that Mr Obama said the personnel would help with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria, which shares a border with Chad.
It was gathered that the team who are due to arrive on Wednesday may already be there, according to Pentagon spokesman Myles Caggins.
According to Caggins, the 80 U.S. military personnel will help expand drone searches of the region. About 40 of the troops make up the launch and recovering teams for the drone being deployed there and the other 40 make up the security force for the team. Caggins said this latest deployment will not involve ground searches by the troops.
* Some of the kidnapped schoolgirls in a video released by the Boko Haram sect recently
A senior U.S. official said the drone is a Predator, and will be in addition to the unarmed Global Hawks already being used. The new flights will be based out of Chad and allow the military to expand its search to that country. Initially the flights were largely over Nigeria.
The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity. The Predator also replaced the manned Liberty aircraft that was being used for search flights, but was pulled out for maintenance.
The government of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan came under intense criticism for an initial slow response to the kidnappings. Since then, the international community has pledged its assistance.
Details of this are still being expected.
Source: Legit.ng
