US Military Officials Arrive Nigeria, Says Abducted Chibok Schoolgirls May Have Been Trafficked

U.S. military officials arrived Nigeria on Friday, May 9, 2014 to help in the search for hundreds of girls kidnapped by Islamist militants, the Pentagon said.

The seven man team will join a team already advising Nigeria on the search, said U.S. Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, who serves as Pentagon press secretary.

Kirby has said that here are no plans to send American combat troops to Nigeria.

About 60 U.S. interagency members have been on the ground since before the kidnappings as part of counterterrorism efforts with Nigeria, a senior U.S. administration official told CNN.

They have been holding meetings, getting resources into the country and making assessments with local authorities.

“Our interagency team is hitting the ground in Nigeria now and they are going to be working … with President Goodluck Jonathan’s government to do everything that we possibly can to return these girls,” Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday.

Their tasks in the country are to establish a coordination cell to provide intelligence, carry out investigations and offer hostage negotiation expertise.

A British team drawn from the country’s Department for International Development, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and defense ministry arrived in Abuja Friday, the foreign office said.

They will work with Nigerian authorities and the U.S. team both on strategies to rescue the girls and longer-term efforts to defeat Boko Haram, the office said in a statement.

Reports from the U. S intelligence indicate that the 276 abducted Chibok girls have been split up.

Kirby said they believe the girls “have been broken up into smaller groups,” but declined to detail how officials came to the conclusion. His sentiment has been echoed by others.

“The search must be in Niger, Cameroon and Chad, to see if we can find information,” said Gordon Brown, a former UK Prime Minister and the U.N.’s special envoy for global education.

On Thursday, the Boko Haram sect bombed the bridge linking Nigeria to Cameroon at the outskirts of Gamboru Ngala, the same village of last Monday attacks that claimed the lives of over 300.

At least 30 people were killed in the bombing incident.

The bridge links the immigration check points of both Cameroon and Nigeria.