Britain is to send a small group of experts to Nigeria to help with the hunt for more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, Downing Street has announced.
It is understood that the team – drawn from Whitehall departments including Defence, International Development and the Foreign Office – may include military officers but will concentrate on planning, co-ordination and advice to local authorities, rather than getting involved in operations on the ground to free the girls.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan accepted the UK’s offer of help in a phone call with David Cameron, shortly after the prime minister told the House of Commons that the mass abduction was “an act of pure evil”.
Mr Cameron’s official spokesman said the UK team will fly to the west African state “as soon as possible”, but was unable to say how large the group will be.
The British team will work alongside US military and law enforcement officers tasked by President Barack Obama to provide technical assistance to the Nigerian authorities. Downing Street stressed that Nigeria’s government remains in the lead in the operation to find the 276 missing girls.
The leader of Boko Haram – whose name means “Western education is sinful” – has threatened to sell the girls abducted three weeks ago into slavery.
At Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, Mr Cameron said it was vital that Britain stood against the actions of “extreme Islamists” who oppose education and progress. He said: “It has united people across the planet to stand with Nigeria to help find these children and return them to their parents.”
Mr Cameron’s spokesman rejected suggestions that the UK had been slow to provide assistance following the April 15 abduction.
“We have been in close contact from the outset with the Nigerian government on this issue,” said the spokesman.
Downing Street said Mr Cameron and Mr Jonathan agreed to “explore how to further strengthen co-operation on counter-terrorism in the longer term, so as to help in the prevention of such attacks in the future”.