London: Britain is prepared to send special forces and intelligence-gathering aircraft to Nigeria to help in the hunt for the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram militants, Whitehall officials have said.
Options for British support for the Nigerian forces struggling to find nearly 300 young girls were discussed by officials at a meeting of the government’s emergency committee, Cobra.
The Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence declined to say what help Britain might provide until the Nigerian authorities made an official request.
Details of the assistance that Nigeria requires are expected to be handed to Britain on Wednesday, though it is understood that unofficial talks between the two countries have already taken place.
The Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, on Tuesday welcomed a US offer to send an American team to Nigeria to support its response to the kidnappings.
The US has operated a drone base in neighbouring Niger since 2012, but Africa’s most populous country has long rebuffed requests for them to operate on its territory.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that president Barack Obama has been briefed on the situation several times, and described the abductions as “an outrage.” He said Washington was providing assistance in counter-terrorism training, including forensics and investigative capacity.
William Hague, the foreign secretary, said Britain was offering Nigeria assistance in recovering the girls who were being “treated as spoils of war by Boko Haram”.
Senior government officials said special forces – members of the Special Air Service (SAS), or its naval equivalent, the Special Boat Service (SBS) – would be deployed in Nigeria if asked to do so.
One possibility for British military involvement is that experienced UK special forces troopers would be sent out to advise Nigerian special forces.
UK special forces are normally deployed in rescue missions when British citizens or residents are being held captive. The last time they were deployed to Nigeria was in 2012 when the SBS joined Nigerian soldiers in an attempt to save the lives of Chris McManus, a construction worker, and his Italian colleague, Franco Lamolinara. They were killed by Islamist kidnappers moments after the rescue mission was launched.
British officials also said that the RAF could send Istar (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance) planes to search for the children and their abductors.
Sentinel aircraft played a key role during the military operations over Libya three years ago. The aircraft can intercept communications as well as monitor movements on the ground.
All of Britain’s Reaper unmanned aircraft are operating in Afghanistan though the US drones in Niger were deployed there during the crisis in Mali last year.
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, offered US support in a phone call to President Jonathan, who welcomed it, said state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Kerry said Washington was “ready to send a team to Nigeria to discuss how the United States can best support” efforts to find the girls, Psaki added.
Washington had also offered to set up a coordination cell at their embassy in Abuja with US military personnel, law enforcement officials and experts in hostage situations, she said.
Although the girls, aged between 16 and 18, were kidnapped from their boarding school in north-eastern Nigeria three weeks ago, the release of a video showing the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, threatening to sell the girls has pushed the abductions to the forefront of US television news.
US lawmakers have called on the Obama administration to do all it can to help free the girls, and a Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls has gone viral.
About 200 protesters gathered on Tuesday outside the Nigerian embassy in Washington to demand the country take robust action to rescue the girls from the hands of the Islamist militants.
Chanting “bring back our girls” and “no more abuse,” they called upon Jonathan to show courage to resolve the crisis.
