US says Marines will remain in Nigeria until abducted schoolgirls are found .

AMERICAN Marines are likely to remain in Nigeria for the foreseeable future after US State Department officials revealed that their troops will not leave the country until the schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram are found.

On April 14, Boko Haram abducted about 234 pupils from Government Girls Secondary School Chibok in Borno State, prompting an international outcry. Military experts from the US, UK. Israel and France all arrived in Nigeria to help with the search, with Drones and spy planes brought in to help with aerial reconnaissance.

In May this year, US Marines were seen patrolling the streets of Abuja as Nigeria hosted the seventh World Economic Forum on Africa in a bid to provide security for the hundreds of delegates amid the terrorist threat from Boko Haram. Later that month, General David Rodriguez, the former deputy commander of US Forces in Afghanistan and commander of the United States Africa Command (Africom), arrived in Nigeria.

Yesterday,  Marie Harf, a Department of State spokesperson, said the US troops assisting the Nigerian Army to find the girls will not return home until the kidnapped girls are rescued. She added that the US had maintained a level of military cooperation with Nigeria in keeping with relevant human rights legislation and human rights concerns.

Ms Harf said: “We are certainly hopeful that we will track them down and we are committed to putting resources to doing that. We have been very open at times about our concern regarding Nigeria’s human rights record, as obviously, this is a key topic of conversation, especially when we are talking about counter-terrorism.

"Where we are concerned about human rights issues in the Nigerian government or military, we take those very seriously. We have talked a lot about some of our congressional responsibilities when it comes to that issue."

She added that the US government would not relent on its oars until it succeeds in bringing  back the girls. President Barack Obama has repeatedly declared that his administration would fight terrorism in Nigeria as well as stand up to alleged human rights violations by the military.