Chibok Girls: Obama Seeks Global Action Against Boko Haram

U.S. President, Barack Oboma, is seeking global action against the Boko Haram sect, as Washington sends in Military experts to help rescue girls of the Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State abducted by members of the sect.

President Obama condemned the abduction of the girls on Wednesday, describing it as a terrible and heart breaking situation, he said: 'Boko Haram, the terrorist organisation, has been operating in Nigeria, killing people and innocent civilians for a very long time'.

In November 2013, the U.S. government had blacklisted the sect as a foreign terrorist organisation, and had earlier placed a $7 million bounty on the sect's leader, Abubakar Shekau, in June.

In a recent statement, Obama said: 'we have always identified them as one of the worst local or regional terrorist organisations there is out there'.

A social media campaign via #BringBackOurGirls went viral, as international media and personalities picked it up, two weeks after the abduction.

Thousands of protesters also took to the streets in some big cities of the world including Lagos, New York, Washington D.C, London to demand increased efforts by Nigeria's government as well as other governments, to fast track the rescue of the girls, who are said to have been forced into marriages with members of the sect.

Obama, who condoled with the parents of the girls, disclosed that his government had offered help, which his Nigerian counterpart had accepted. 'We are all going to do everything we can to provide assistance to them,' he said.

'In the short term, our goal obviously is to help the international community and the Nigerian government as a team to do everything we can to recover these young ladies, but we are also going to deal with broader problem of organisations like these that can cause such havoc in people's daily day lives.'

The team from the U.S. government will include military personnel, law enforcement and other agencies.

Several other countries including France and Britain have also offered to help Nigeria find the girls abducted on April 14 the same day a bomb blast occurred in Nyanya Motor Park in Abuja. at least 70 persons died in that attack with scores also injured.

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