U.S. deploys surveillance aircraft over Nigeria to find Abducted girls

(Reuters) The United States has deployed manned surveillance aircraft over
Nigeria and is sharing satellite imagery with the Nigerian government to
find more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist insurgents, a senior
Obama administration official said on Monday.

Washington has sent military, law-enforcement and development experts to
Nigeria to help search for the missing girls who were kidnapped by Boko
Haram militants from a secondary school in Chibok in remote northeastern
Nigeria on April 14.

“We have shared commercial satellite imagery with the Nigerians and are
flying manned ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) assets
over Nigeria with the government’s permission,” the U.S. official said.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a news briefing on Monday that
the U.S. was providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
support. She said U.S. teams on the ground “are digging in on the search
and coordinating closely with the Nigerian government as well as
international partners and allies.”

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United
States was also considering deploying unmanned, drone aircraft to aid the
search.

One of the U.S. officials told Reuters the United States had been carrying
out the manned surveillance flights “for a few days” but did not
elaborate.

Last week, U.S. Undersecretary for Africa Linda Thomas-Greenfield told
Reuters in an interview that Nigeria had requested surveillance and
intelligence from the United States.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has said he believes the girls are
still in Nigeria. The leader of Boko Haram has offered to release them in
exchange for members of its group being detained, according to a video
posted on YouTube on Monday.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, additional reporting by Phil Stewart;
Editing by Peter Cooney and Ken Wills)