The American and
African forces sent to Cameroon to fight Boko Haram have, on several occasions,
located clusters of the schoolgirls kidnapped by the militant group two years
ago, US officials said.
Rescue operations
have not been carried out, the officials said, because of fears that any
ensuing battle with Boko Haram fighters would put the captives at risk, or
incite some form of retaliation against hostages still being held in other
areas.
US officials said
a combination of local intelligence, intercepted communications and drone
footage had been used to locate groups of the 276 girls abducted from the
Government Girls Secondary School in the Nigerian town of Chibok two years ago
this month. Some of the girls have since been tracked to Nigeria’s sprawling
Sambisa Forest.
Officials insist
that efforts to free the girls have not been abandoned. They say that a major
concern is the hundreds of other women and girls who are also held by Boko
Haram, captives who are often sexually assaulted, forced into marriages with
their tormentors, and sometimes killed.
“You’re not just
looking for 200 girls,” said General Carter F. Ham, the retired head of the US
military’s Africa Command. “There are many, many others who have been taken
hostage, and more thousands killed, and 2½ million people displaced.”
Source: Boston Globe