Obama Sends Troops to Chad in Search of Missing Nigerian Schoolgirls

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Some of the mothers of the kidnapped schoolgirls sit in Chibok, Nigeria on May 18, 2014.

Image: Sunday Alamba/Associated Press

By Brian Ries2014-05-21 16:33:37 -0400

President Obama on Wednesday deployed about 80 Armed Forces personnel to Chad to help find the Nigerian schoolgirls who have been missing since April.

Chad borders the eastern border of Nigeria, a region where officials suspect the Islamic militant group Boko Haram is keeping nearly 300 kidnapped girls.

See also: Bring Back Our Girls: Why the World Is Finally Talking About Nigeria's Kidnapped Students

The administration's decision to deploy troops is a bit unexpected. Earlier this month, the U.S. sent an interdisciplinary team to Abuja, Nigeria to aid in the search. At the time, a Pentagon spokesperson told Mashable that “military personnel will not physically search for the girls or Boko Haram” in Nigeria. Senator John McCain, however, told The Daily Beast on May 13 that he would send U.S. troops to rescue the girls “in a New York minute.”

“If we rescued these young girls, it would be the high point of the [President Obama’s] popularity,” McCain said.

Women attend a sit down rally calling on the government to rescue the kidnapped school girls of the Chibok secondary school, in Abuja, Nigeria, Thursday, May 15, 2014.

Image: Sunday Alamba/Associated Press

Obama announced this latest deployment in a "War Powers Notification" letter that he sent to Speaker of the House John Boehner and the president pro tempore of the Senate Patrick Leahy.

In the letter, Obama said the troops would "support the operation of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria and the surrounding area. The force will remain in Chad until its support in resolving the kidnapping situation is no longer required."

The news came as ABC reported that the U.S. had moved "additional unarmed Predator aircraft" into the country to fly longer surveillance missions over NE Nigeria.

The girls have been missing since April 15 when militants stormed their school in the northern Nigerian city of Chibok and kidnapped them at gunpoint. Some of them escaped.

Joy Bishara, left, and Hadiza Fali, escaped being kidnapped by Islamist extremists by jumping off a truck, pose in Chibok, Nigeria.

Image: Sunday Alamba/Associated Press

Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau had previously claimed that the girls have converted to Islam, and they will not be released until some of the group's prisoners in Nigeria are freed in return.

A global effort is now underway to find the girls and bring them home.

A letter from the President to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate consist...

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Topics: nigeria, US & World, World