ICC Note:
Amnesty International has reported that Nigerian security officials had advance warning of the impending mass-abduction of more than 240 predominately Christina school girls from a Chibok secondary school on April 14. A U.S. task force deployed to Nigeria has arrived and is now assisting the state and it’s security personnel with intelligence in its efforts to locate and release those still missing. Time remains of the essence following the release of a video featuring Boko Haram’s leader and spokesman, Abubakar Shekau, promising to act on Allah’s “instruction” to sell the girls into domestic and sexual servitudes, including forced marriages, in some cases to the girls’ very captors.
05/09/2014 Washington, D.C. (Amnesty International) – Damning testimonies gathered by Amnesty International reveal that Nigerian security forces failed to act on advance warnings about Boko Haram’s armed raid on the state-run boarding school in Chibok which led to the abduction of more than 240 schoolgirls on April 14-15.
After independently verifying information based on multiple interviews with credible sources, the organization today revealed that the Nigerian security forces had more than four hours of advance warning about the attack but did not do enough to stop it.
“The fact that Nigerian security forces knew about Boko Haram’s impending raid, but failed to take the immediate action needed to stop it, will only amplify the national and international outcry at this horrific crime,” said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International’s Africa Director, Research and Advocacy.
“It amounts to a gross dereliction of Nigeria’s duty to protect civilians, who remain sitting ducks for such attacks. The Nigerian leadership must now use all lawful means at their disposal to secure the girls’ safe release and ensure nothing like this can happen again.”
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