US To Join In Rescue Of Abducted School Girls

THE United States Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry, has expressed the US’ determination to assist Nigeria in finding the over 200 kidnapped schoolgirls weeks after they were abducted in Chibok, Maiduguri State, adding that his country was already working with Nigeria to strengthen its institutions and military to combat terrorism.

Kerry, who was speaking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, in continuation of his Africa Tour, which began on Wednesday, described the Chibok abduction as an “unconscionable crime,” saying that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.

He said: “Let me be clear. The kidnapping of hundreds of children by Boko Haram is an unconscionable crime, and we will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and to hold the perpetrators to justice. I will tell you, my friends, I have seen this scourge of terror across the planet, and so have you. They don’t offer anything except violence. They don’t offer a health care plan, they don’t offer schools. They don’t tell you how to build a nation, they don’t talk about how they will provide jobs. They just tell people, “you have to behave the way we tell you to,” and they will punish you if you don’t.”

According to Kerry, lack of security, threats of violence and all-out war have been preventing the prosperity of the African continent.

“The burdens of past divisions might not disappear entirely, my friends. But they must never be allowed to bury the future. The African Union’s commitment to silence the guns of Africa by 2020 is an ambitious goal. It is the right goal. It is a vision worth fighting for, and one that we will do everything in our power to help you achieve, and that’s why we will continue to provide financial and logistical support to African Union-led efforts in Somalia, where al-Shahaab is under significant pressure. That’s why we will continue to support the African Union Regional Task Force against the Lord’s Resistance Army, where LRA-related deaths have dropped by 75 percent, and hundreds of thousands have returned to their homes.

And that’s why we are working to strengthen Nigeria’s institutions and its military to combat Boko Haram, and their campaign of terror and violence,” Kerry stated.