U.S. irked by Nigerians’ inept search for girls

WASHINGTON — As American military and intelligence specialists joined the hunt for Nigeria’s missing schoolgirls, U.S. officials expressed frustration yesterday with the African country’s inability to act on fresh intelligence about the Boko Haram extremists who have taken more than 200 teenagers captive and threatened to sell them into slavery.

Imagery from U.S. surveillance drones and satellites has shown suspected bands of Boko Haram militants setting up temporary camps and moving through villages and along dirt tracks in northeastern Nigeria, U.S. officials said.

The Obama administration has shared the imagery with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s government in Abuja. But Nigeria’s security forces are hampered by poor equipment and training and have failed to respond quickly, said a U.S. official familiar with the search.

U.S. defense officials think militants from Boko Haram, a militant Islamic sect, split the girls into several groups after the April 14 kidnapping from a government-run school in Chibok village. The leader of the militants, Abubakar Shekau, said this week that he would release some of the girls in exchange for imprisoned members of his group.

Bolstered by international help, the Nigerianled search has now expanded to include an ungoverned area roughly the size of West Virginia that crosses into Chad, Niger and Cameroon, U.S. officials said.

Mounting U.S. frustration about the case spilled out at a Senate hearing yesterday.

“It is impossible to fathom that we might have actionable intelligence and we would not have the wherewithal — whether by the Nigerians themselves or by other entities helping the Nigerians — to be able to conduct a rescue mission,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Parents of the abducted girls have complained that they reported the location of the girls days after the kidnapping but that security forces did not respond. Jonathan reportedly plans to fly to Chibok today for the first time since the girls were seized.

The U.S team includes military experts in logistics, communications and information sharing. The White House has no plan to send troops.

Boko Haram was added to the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations last year. U.S. officials say some of its fighters received training and weapons from al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

U.S. officials say Boko Haram has about 300 trained fighters. The total swells to about 3,000 if supporters are included.