Revelations which recently came to light, proves that the governments of the United States of America and United Kingdom, at a point in time, knew the location of the kidnapped Chibok girls but failed to rescue them.

In April 2014, a group of Boko Haram insurgents stormed Chibok, in Borno state, and abducted over 200 teenage girls.

In spite of the worldwide campaign, series of movements and government interventions, most of the girls still remain in captivity.

According to the Sunday Times of London, the governments of both nations knew the location of about 80 of the Chibok girls and passed the information to the government of Nigeria, who failed to request for help or make any move.

In addition, videos wherein the girls were used as sex slaves, were also reported to have surfaced.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Andrew Pocock, the former British High Commissioner to Nigeria, stated that: “A couple of months after the kidnapping, fly-bys and an American eye in the sky spotted a group of up to 80 girls in a particular spot in the Sambisa Forest, around a very large tree, called locally the Tree of Life, along with evidence of vehicular movement and a large encampment.”

Pocock noted that the girls were there for about 4 four weeks but stressed that authorities were powerless to intervene and the Nigerian government, on her part, failed to ask for help.

He stated that: “A land-based attack would have been seen coming miles away and the girls killed, an air-based rescue, such as flying in helicopters or Hercules, would have required large numbers and meant a significant risk to the rescuers and even more so to the girls.”

“You might have rescued a few but many would have been killed. My personal fear was always about the girls not in that encampment — 80 were there, but 250 were taken, so the bulk were not there. What would have happened to them? You were damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”