U.S. Expresses Concern Over Missing Dapchi Schoolgirls, British Military Monitoring Situation

The United States of America yesterday said it was concerned about the missing Dapchi schoolgirls.

While addressing journalists at the White House, the Spokesperson of the US Department of State, Ms Heather Nauert, said: “I’d like to bring your attention to Africa and something that took place in Nigeria. We’re still trying to get all the details about that, but I wanted to mention that we condemn in the strongest possible terms the terror attack on a school earlier this week in northeastern Nigeria. The choice of targets, including schools, markets, and places of worship, reflect the brutality of terror organisations.

“The victims in the attack were girls who were simply seeking an education. We want to extend our condolences to the students and to their families affected by these terrorist attacks and are concerned that some of the students are still not accounted for. We continue to support Nigerian efforts to counter the terror groups. We also support Nigerian efforts to enable more than two million displaced in the Lake Chad region to return home safely.”

The British military has also said that it was monitoring the Dapchi abduction saga closely.

The General Advisor, British Advisory and Training Team (Bmatt), Maj. Ian Robertson disclosed this in Abuja at event organised by Partners West Africa Nigeria, with the Theme, “Prioritising the Voices of Women in Security Organisations Using the Second Generation National Action Plan (2017-2020)”.

According to him, “having heard about this particular issue recently and I’m still trying to get more information about what is going on, but it is clearly very disappointing that something like this has happened; that the girls have been taken. Let me reassure you from the British military perspective, we are monitoring the event quite closely and we are cooperating with the armed forces of Nigeria to see how we can assist.”

Asked if the federal government had made enough commitment towards rescuing the girls, he said: “That is very difficult or me to comment on. I don’t really monitor what your government does here; I’m working at a very basic level, trying to ensure that the training that we provide to your soldiers, the armed forces of Nigeria have a gender perspective. I understand the question but I’m not sure I will be able to answer it for you.”

Earlier, the Executive Director, Partners West Africa, Ms. Kemi Okenyodo, said the workshop aimed at facilitating a holistic planning of security sector reform processes in North-east Nigeria, with a view to identifying good practices that could be replicated in other parts of the country by ensuring that citizens get an opportunity for engaging with policy reform processes that would affect them directly or indirectly.