THE United States has deployed 80 military personnel to Chad, to help regional efforts to rescue more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped in Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday.
“These personnel will support the operation of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria and the surrounding area,” Obama said in a letter to Congress.
This came as Boko Haram, in the early hours of Wednesday, attacked Alagarno village in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State, killing 48 people and carted away food items after setting ablaze almost all the houses in the village.
Alagarno village is about 30 kilometres to Chibok, where over 200 female students of Government Secondary School were abducted by the insurgents, and about 117 kilometres from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
A local, Mallam Umaru Saina, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune on phone, said a young woman in the village was missing during the attack, adding that it could not be ascertained whether the woman was taken along by the insurgents.
“They destroy everything we have and carted away our remaining food. The most painful thing is that they did not spare children. They killed children, women and men,” he said.
Neither the police nor the army had commented on the incident as of the time of filing this report, but sources within the military said security operatives had already been detailed to the area.James Bwala - Maiduguri with Agency Report
Source: Tribune
