[by:¿É¿ÉÓ¢Óï¡«www.utensil-race.com]
[00:00.03] First lady Michelle Obama late today tweeted a picture of herself holding up a sign with the hashtag # bringbackourgirls.
[00:02.39] Jeffrey Brown picks up the story here.
[00:03.25] And for a closer look at the situation in Nigeria and here in Washington, I 'm joined by Jon Temin,
[00:05.47] director of Africa Programs for the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Heather Murdock, who is in Abuja covering the story for" The Christian Science Monitor." Well,
[00:13.34] Heather Murdock, starting with you, Secretary Kerry announced help from the U.S. and he said, you 're going to see a very,
[00:19.39] very rapid response.
[00:21.07] Is it clear what that means?
[00:23.05] What is the expectation there?
[00:26.35] Well, there's different expectations.
[00:28.16] Publicly, a lot of people are welcoming the U.S. and thinking that if anybody can come and save those girls,
[00:35.12] it is the U.S. There is some concern among security experts wondering if it could possibly escalate the situation and put the girls in harm's way.
[00:44.51] But on the streets and the protests, most people are very happy that the U.S. has finally agreed to come and help them.
[00:51.55] And, Jon Temin, this is a very small force.
[00:54.06] It's not ª certainly for the moment, not military focused, but, what, intelligence focused, I guess.
[00:59.56] Intelligence focused and also skills focused, law enforcement, those sorts of things that the Nigerians can benefit from.
[01:07.12] But I think it's important to manage the expectations, because it is a small force and there are limits,
[01:12.38] I think, to what the Nigerians are going to accept as well.
[01:16.20] In the past, they have been wary of accepting too much outside assistance in situations like this.
[01:21.38] Just because of the sensitivity politically or what?
[01:24.03] Because of the sensitivity, because of the seeming infringement on their sovereignty that that might entail and because of the embarrassment of having to look so far away for help.
[01:33.44] So, how much ª the question of how much the U.S. can actually do in this case is ª hinges on questions like that.
[01:40.24] It hinges on that, and it hinges on realistically what can we expect the U.S. outsiders to be able to do in remote part of this very large country?
[01:50.17] A lot of the intelligence that I think is needed comes from local communities.
[01:54.13] That's not necessarily where the U.S. or others can be of assistance.
[01:57.33] Well, Heather Murdock, now there's been another ª this attack on a border town that left hundreds of people dead.
[02:03.16] What is the thinking there about the inability or reluctance of the and government and military to do more to go after the militants?
[02:13.44] Well, attacks like this on this village have been going on all year.
[02:18.27] For the first three months, it was almost every day.
[02:21.21] And people are frustrated, and people are scared, because what often happens is the military themselves are scared.
[02:27.07] I do not know ª we do not have it for sure, but we have heard that that particular village had no soldiers guarding it,
[02:33.07] because either they were scared and ran away or the military is stretched so thin that those soldiers were redeployed somewhere else,
[02:40.38] presumably to find the girls.
[02:43.00] So, there's been violence regularly, as you say, even daily.
[02:47.00] But the case with the kidnapping of the girls clearly ratcheted things up there as well, right?
[02:53.14] Yes.
[02:53.46] It was the most emotional attack I think of the entire Boko Haram insurgency.
[02:58.39] It's galvanized the public here in a way that I have never seen.
[03:02.07] There's been protests all over the country and everyone is getting behind demanding that these girls be found.
[03:07.36] And do you sense that that pressure is having an impact on the government?
[03:13.09] I think it very much is.
[03:14.25] I can not imagine why President Jonathan would have accepted help from the U.S. if there was not so much pressure at home to accept it.
[03:21.54] So, Jon Temin, what has been the relationship in the past up to this point between U.S. government and the government and the military in Nigeria?
[03:30.04] Generally a friendly one, but I think the U.S., like many others, has been encouraging the Nigerian government to be more serious,
[03:38.47] perhaps more forceful in the response to Boko Haram.
[03:41.31] There are lot of security concerns associated with Boko Haram, including potential linkages to other extremist groups further north in the Sahel,
[03:50.02] even elsewhere in Africa.
[03:52.32] But the U.S. recognizes the big importance of Nigeria on a global scale.
[03:57.49] This is the largest country in Africa by population, now the largest country by economy as well,
[04:03.17] also a major oil producer.
[04:04.40] So, there is a strong linkage between Abuja and Washington.
[04:07.39] Well, so if I ask you what the U.S. interests are in this particular case, it's things like that?
[04:14.12] Yes.
[04:14.44] In the particular case of these girls, I think it's a humanitarian interest more than anything else.
[04:19.31] But in the bigger picture concerns with Boko Haram, there are real security interests at stake.
[04:24.34] Well, Heather Murdock, how much is the outside pressure?
[04:27.46] You were just talking about what's happening, the pressure inside the country.
[04:31.15] But pressure from outside attention from the world, how much is that affecting the situation there?
[04:39.21] I think it's affecting the situation a lot.
[04:41.42] I believe that the pressure from inside Nigeria is part of the reason why there's been so much attention paid by the international community,
[04:49.15] because, prior to this, Boko Haram attacks did not always draw a lot of attention within Nigeria.
[04:55.06] And people are talking really loud.
[04:57.06] Activists are going out of their way to make sure that this stays in the news as long as it can.
[05:01.42] And I think that is part of the reason why it's in the news internationally,
[05:05.30] and the Nigerian government is feeling the pressure from outside as well as in.
[05:09.52] And what more are they being asked to do in terms of militarily, send more people into these areas?
[05:17.07] What do you ª do you see that kind of action happening yet?
[05:22.27] They say they are doing everything they can.
[05:24.23] Part of the problem here though is that they will not give us details about what they 're doing.
[05:30.18] They say that they can not give details for security concerns, which is legitimate.
[05:34.08] But a lot of people want to know more.
[05:36.27] There is also word from the area that a lot of these areas, the military can not even get in to,
[05:43.32] which leads people to believe that maybe some of these areas are not even controlled by the government; they 're controlled by the militants.
[05:50.02] Do you join, Jon Temin, have a sense from people here that the government and military could in fact do more,
[05:56.25] but they just simply are not?
[05:59.27] Perhaps.
[06:00.11] But I think one of the really important points here is that it can not just be a military response to the Boko Haram insurgency,
[06:05.40] because so much of this is driven by poverty, is driven by lack of jobs, lack of opportunity in Northern Nigeria.
[06:12.08] I think the message from here and from a lot of the world is there has to be an economic program to accompany some of the military responses and that just the military response is potentially counterproductive.
[06:22.59] We have seen a rather heavy handed military response, and that could be driving people even closer to Boko Haram in some places.
[06:30.02] And, Heather Murdock, finally, let me just ask you, what is the thinking there now about the whereabouts,
[06:35.12] the safety of these girls?
[06:38.44] Well, the president says the girls are safe.
[06:40.53] People are skeptical, to say the least.
[06:44.40] And people have reported that the girls have been separated.
[06:48.42] Some of them might be over the border in Cameroon or Chad.
[06:51.36] And threat generally believed to be in the area of the Sambisa forest, which is considered one of the most dangerous parts of the country,
[06:57.48] if not the most dangerous part of the country.
[06:59.42] Do you have anything to add on that, Jon Temin?
[07:02.57] Just that I think we also now need to be looking across some of the borders,
[07:05.55] because there are three countries nearby, Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
[07:09.45] And it may well be that some of the girls may have crossed some of those borders.
[07:13.51] That's where intelligence sharing and cooperation between Nigeria and those countries is particularly important.
[07:20.18] Jon Temin here in Washington, Heather Murdock in Nigeria, thank you both very much.
[07:24.33] Thank you.
[07:25.53] Thank you.