A top Nigerian military official said Monday that the government knows the whereabouts of several hundred kidnapped girls but cannot reveal their location and cannot use force to rescue them, according to the Web site of the Ogun state television service.
“The good news for the parents of the girls is that we know where they are, but we cannot tell you,” Air Marshal Alex Badeh, the government’s chief of defense staff, was quoted telling a group of visitors at his office in the capital, Abuja. He reportedly told the group, “Just leave us alone, we are working to get the girls back.”
