U.S. to help Nigeria bring back kidnapped girls
By Associated Press, adapted by Newsela staMay. 08, 2014 4:00 AMMia Kuumba, of the District of Columbia, brandishes a wooden stick during a rally in front of the Nigerian
embassy in northwest Washington, Tuesday, May 6, 2014, protesting the kidnapping of nearly 300 teenage
schoolgirls, abducted from a school in the remote northeast of Nigeria three weeks ago.WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the U.S. will do everything it can to
help Nigeria ?nd nearly 300 teenage girls. The girls have been missing since they were kidnapped
from their school three weeks ago. The terror organization, which has taken the girls, has threatened
to sell them into slavery.
Obama said a team of U.S. experts will be sent to the African nation immediately to help ?nd the
girls.
Obama said the most urgent goal is ?nding the girls. But the extremist group, Boko Haram, must
also be dealt with, he said.
“In the short term our goal is obviously is to help the international community, and the Nigerian
government, as a team to do everything we can to recover these young ladies,” Obama said. He
spoke in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show. They were some of his ?rst public comments
about the kidnapping, which he called a “terrible situation.”
“But we’re also going to have to deal with the broader problem of organizations like this that …
can cause such (chaos) in people’s day-to-day lives,” Obama said of Boko Haram.
1International Outrage
The April 15 kidnapping has sparked international outrage. Nigeria has come under increasing
pressure to ?nd and free the girls before they can be sold into slavery or harmed.
Nigeria’s police have said more than 300 girls were taken by force from their high school in the country’s remote northeast area. Of that number, 276 remain missing and 53 managed to escape.
Obama said he was glad the Nigerian government has accepted help from the U.S.
“Obviously,…