Some of you may have seen this photo and similar ones on several online platforms, claiming its US troops capturing a Boko Haram member….erm, it’s false. U.S Pentagon has stated there will be no American troops in Nigeria…at least for now. The team sent are experts to help with communications, logistics, and intelligence. The pic above going viral is French troops in Central African Republic in 2013.
Also, you can see in all the pics floating online, from the uniforms, the African soldiers taking notes from American forces are from Uganda and Somalia. Military aid has been in Africa for sometime under AFRICOM to help train our military.
According to a report on Vanguard, there were indications yesterday that the 230 female students abducted by Boko Haram terrorists from the Government Girls’ Secondary School, GGSS, Chibok, Borno State, have been sited at the Sambisa Forest in Borno State, by the Special Forces of the United States Marines.
This story is untrue. U.S. defense and military officials for now have knocked down any speculation that US military forces would be directly involved in a rescue effort.
Six U.S. military advisers arrived in Nigeria on Friday to assist the nation in its search efforts, bringing the total number of US military personnel there to 18, including the 11 who are permanently assigned advise and help train Nigerian military forces. Two additional military personnel are set to arrive later Friday, and seven more will travel to Nigeria on Saturday, said State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki.
“If there are needs for more, we’ll continue to assess that,” Psaki said.