In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, a UK Newspaper, former
British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Andrew Pocock, says that 80 of the
Government Girls College Students who were abducted by Boko Haram
members in April 2014, were spotted in Sambisa forest by a team of
British and American surveillance but they could not rescue them as the
Nigerian government made no request for help.
“A couple of months after the kidnapping, fly-bys and an American ‘eye
in the sky’ spotted a group of up to 80 girls in a particular spot in
the Sambisa forest, around a very large tree — called locally the Tree
of Life — along with evidence of vehicular movement and a large
encampment. They were there for perhaps up to four weeks, and the
question was what to do about them. Answer came there none.”
He said despite all the BBOG campaigns in London and the White House,
the British and American troops could not immediately go in to rescue
the girls because the Nigerians never asked for that
“What’s more,” Pocock says, “the Nigerians never asked for that.”
He however pointed out that if the Nigerian government had even asked
for help, he said the safety of the girls would have been of utmost
priority as it would have been very risky to go in and carryout any
rescue operation
“A land-based attack would have been seen coming miles away and the
girls killed. An air-based rescue would have required large numbers and
meant a significant risk to the rescuers and even more to the girls. You
might have rescued a few, but many would have been killed. My personal
fear was always about the girls not in that encampment. 80 were there,
but 250 were taken, so the bulk were not there. What would have happened
to them? It’s perfectly conceivable that Shekau, the leader of Boko
Haram, would have appeared on one of his videos a week later, saying,
‘Who told you that you could try and free these girls? Let me show you
what I’ve done to them…’ So you were damned if you did, damned if you
didn’t. They were beyond rescue, in practical terms."he said
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