Amnesty International is alleging that the Nigerian government knew about the Boko Haram attack on the girls’ boarding school at least four hours before it happened. The report, released by the human rights group on Friday, echoes the accounts of a number of parents villagers who claim that the government has not done enough since the girls have been abducted.
Nigerian President Jonathan Goodluck vehemently denies that the government was aware of the raid on the Chibok boarding school which resulted in the kidnapping of 276 girls. The country’s Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, insists that the Nigerian government went into action as soon as they received the news of the abduction and Nigeria’s defense ministry calls the accusations “unfortunate and untrue.”
The Amnesty International report, which was based on the reports of over a dozen people, including two senior Nigerian military officials, claims that when Nigerian commanders were informed of the impending attack they could not raise enough troops to respond to the danger. The group reports that only 15-17 soldiers and a handful of police officers were left to fight off the invasion. “When it was clear these girls had been abducted, no reinforcements were sent to the town,” Makmid Kamara, a researcher with Amnesty International, told CNN. The defense ministry denies these allegations and says that the troops were first alerted that there was an ongoing attack in Chibok.
Still, many are questioning why the Nigerian government didn’t mount a larger response or ask for help to mitigate the situation sooner. Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier this week that repeated offers of assistance were declined by President Goodluck. Now, officials believe that the girls have been broken up and sent to different countries, which only makes the task to find them more difficult.
“In a hostage situation, time is of the essence,” said U.S. Navy Rear Adm John Kirby, who serves as Pentagon press secretary. “We lost some time.”
The news seems bleak, but everyone is holding out hope that they will #bringbackourgirls.