--- title: Nigeria: Girls Kidnapped by Boko Haram to Get Help From Obama description: Obama said the U.S. has sent a team to aid in efforts to recover more than 250 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram canonical: https://time.com/89665/boko-haram-nigeria-girls/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-06T17:26:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:21.308Z article:section: Politics og:title: Nigeria: Girls Kidnapped by Boko Haram to Get Help From Obama og:description: Obama said the U.S. has sent a team to aid in efforts to recover more than 250 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram og:url: https://time.com/89665/boko-haram-nigeria-girls/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4440a10acdaf61ad/69868e2b35ba6f14fac01dd0/2014-05-05t222306z_1435618913_gm1ea560.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: U.S. President Obama speaks at a Cinco de Mayo reception at the White House in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nigeria: Girls Kidnapped by Boko Haram to Get Help From Obama twitter:description: Obama said the U.S. has sent a team to aid in efforts to recover more than 250 Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4440a10acdaf61ad/69868e2b35ba6f14fac01dd0/2014-05-05t222306z_1435618913_gm1ea560.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. to Send Team to Nigeria to Help Find Kidnapped Girls > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ab9bb684-d15b-4e4e-a185-b4d441982793&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Boko Haram Abduction and Terror [Watch (HLS stream): Boko Haram Abduction and Terror](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aONwMaQI.m3u8) (1:34)  _Published 2014-05-06. Boko Haram claims responsibility for the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian school girls, which has sprung a global movement calling for their release._ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 6, 2014 5:26 PM UTC  President Obama speaks at a Cinco de Mayo reception at the White House in Washington, May 5, 2014. President Obama speaks at a Cinco de Mayo reception at the White House in Washington, May 5, 2014. Yuri Gripas—Reuters by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller May 6, 2014 5:26 PM UTC **Updated: May 6, 2014, 5:40 p.m. E.T.** The U.S. is preparing to deploy a team of military, law enforcement and hostage negotiators to Nigeria, officials said Tuesday, to help with the ongoing effort to recover [more than 250 kidnapped schoolgirls](http://time.com/87658/boko-haram-nigeria-kidnapped-girls/) whose [plight](http://time.com/84414/how-we-failed-the-lost-girls-kidnapped-by-boko-haram/) has captured global attention. “Obviously it’s a heartbreaking situation, outrageous situation,” President Barack Obama told [ABC](http://abcn.ws/1jxVenP) on Tuesday. “We’ve already sent in a team to Nigeria — they’ve accepted our help through a combination of military, law enforcement, and other agencies who are going in, trying to identify where in fact these girls might be and provide them help,” he added. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday morning to discuss the plan to send a “coordination cell” to Abuja, the Nigerian capital, to assist in locating the girls, who were taken by the Boko Haram militant group in April. The group’s leader recently boasted in a video that “I will sell them in the market.” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the team “could provide expertise on intelligence, investigations and hostage negotiations, help facilitate information sharing and provide victim assistance. It would include U.S. military personnel, law-enforcement officials with expertise in investigations and hostage negotiations, as well as officials with expertise in other areas that may be helpful to the Nigerian government in its response.” Psaki didn’t say how large the team will be, nor would she confirm if the Nigerian government has explicitly accepted the U.S. offer to help. “I think \[Kerry\] came away from the call with an understanding that this is something we’d work with the Nigerians to implement,” she said. White House press secretary Jay Carney said President Obama and Kerry would discuss the ongoing effort to locate the girls in their meeting Tuesday afternoon. “We are not considering at this point military resources,” Carney said, saying the military personnel being sent are to take on an advisory role for the Nigerian government. “What I can tell you is that it is certainly Nigeria’s responsibility to maintain the safety and security of its citizens,” Carney added. ## Transcript New horrors from a brazen and increasing dangerous terrorist organization a man claiming to be the leader of the Islamic militant Boko Haram is promising a grim fate for 223 Nigerian girls kidnapped in the dead of night during a fiery attack on their school three weeks ago. I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market by Allah. There is a market for selling humans. Outrageous threats in a rambling nearly hour- long video. More reason for the United States to be very worried about Boko Haram's expanding campaign of terror, with some financial help and training from Al Qaeda. The group has killed thousands of people including innocent children since it's emergence in 2009 in bombings and armed attacks on buses, churches, mosques, and villages. Boko Haram's means Western education is sinful, it's goal is to create a radical Islamic estate in Nigeria. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell the women. I sell women. [ NOISE ] Protesters in Nigeria and around the world are demanding action to find the abducted girls, who may already have been sold as child brides or worse. CNN has learned that the Obama administration has started sharing intelligence with Nigeria. 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