U.S. Team Headed to Nigeria to Help Find Missing Girls

Mia 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.

IMAGE: MANUEL BALCE CENETA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

BY BRIAN RIES11 MINUTES AGO

The White House will send a team to Nigeria to aid in the search for nearly 300 kidnapped teenage girls, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Tuesday.

Carney said there is a "utility to having U.S. military personnel and experts on intelligence" in Nigeria, "and hostage negotiators to assist and advise the Nigerian government as they deal with this challenge," according to the Washington Post.

Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated the promise in a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

"Today, I offered U.S. support to Nigeria in response to this crisis," Kerry said, stating he remained deeply concerned about the welfare of the girls.

"We have been in touch [with the Nigerian government] from day one," he said, "and our embassy has been engaged, and we have been engaged, but the government had its own set of strategies in the beginning," he said. 

"I think now the complications that have arisen have convinced everybody that there needs to be a greater effort," he added.

"It will begin immediately," Kerry said of the U.S. efforts. "We're going to do everything in our power to be helpful."

SEE ALSO: Bring Back Our Girls: Why the World Is Finally Talking About Nigeria's Kidnapped Students

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan reportedly welcomed the offer. The news comes as a hashtag associated with the missing girls surpassed 1 million mentions on Twitter, a notable milestone three weeks after the girls were reportedly kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamic militants from their school in the northern Nigerian city of Chibok.

The militant group, whose name means "western education is sinful," has claimed credit for the kidnappings and said they would sell the girls as sex slaves for $12 each.

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