MORE HELP: Earlier this week, Boko Haram released footage showing some of the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls
BRITAIN WILL send further assistance to Nigeria to aid the rescue of the more than 200 abducted girls, the UK Prime Minister has said.
The additional support includes surveillance aircraft and a military team.
Yesterday (May 14), there was further unrest in the country when, according witnesses, soldiers opened fire on their commander, Maj-Gen Ahmed Mohammed in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.
Reports say the soldiers blamed Mohammed, who escaped unhurt after soldiers shot at his car at the Maimalari barracks, for the killing of their colleagues in an ambush by suspected Boko Haram militants.
Meanwhile, Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan has ruled out freeing Boko Haram prisoners in exchange for the release of more than 200 schoolgirls who were taken from the village of Chibok on April 14.
There has been international condemnation of the abduction as fears mounted that the girls will be sold into slavery.
China, the US and France joined the UK in pledging their support and a twitter-led #bring back our girls campaign spread to streets of cities across the globe.
A team of UK experts arrived in Abuja, Nigeria, on May 9 to advise and support the authorities in their search for the nearly 300 missing girls who were abducted from the country's northeast.
Speaking in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister said: “I can announce that we have offered Nigeria further assistance in terms of surveillance aircraft and a military team to embed with the Nigerian army in its HQ, as well as a team to work with US experts to analyse information on the girls’ location.”
He added: “As I said last week, this was an act of pure evil, and the world is coming together not just to condemn it but to do everything we can to help the Nigerians find these young girls.”