{"id":67522,"date":"2016-04-07T13:14:52","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T11:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/deputy-spokesperson-mark-toners-remarks-on-nigeria-during-daily-press-briefing\/"},"modified":"2016-04-07T13:14:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T11:14:52","slug":"deputy-spokesperson-mark-toners-remarks-on-nigeria-during-daily-press-briefing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/deputy-spokesperson-mark-toners-remarks-on-nigeria-during-daily-press-briefing\/","title":{"rendered":"Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner\u2019s Remarks on Nigeria during Daily Press Briefing"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America, April 7, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — <\/span><\/p>\n

Mark C. Toner<\/p>\n

\n

Deputy Spokesperson<\/p>\n

Daily Press Briefing<\/p>\n

Washington, DC<\/p>\n

April 6, 2016<\/p>\n

(Excerpt \u2013 Nigeria):<\/p>\n

QUESTION: — regarding the Chibok girls. What has the U.S. Government done since 2014 to help facilitate their return?<\/p>\n

MR TONER: Right. You\u2019re talking about the \u2013 right, the Chibok girls from Nigeria. Well, it\u2019s the second anniversary, I think, coming up on that. And of course, we call for all hostages, including these young women and girls who\u2019ve been held by Boko Haram, to be released immediately without preconditions. We support Nigerian efforts to bring about the safe recovery of those kidnapped and we continue to advise them on their response to this, as well as on general counterterrorism and counter-Boko Haram efforts.<\/p>\n

And that assistance takes a number of \u2013 or is \u2013 there\u2019s a number of forms, I guess. One is intelligence training \u2013 one is intelligence, of course, training, advice on strategic communications, but also victim support services and assistance to those who have been \u2013 who have suffered under Boko Haram. I think we\u2019ve given upwards of 198 million in humanitarian assistance to the populations in Nigeria that have been affected by Boko Haram\u2019s continued attacks, terrorist activity.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a heartbreaking story, the situation of these young women who, as I said, were kidnapped. We continue to work and provide any assistance we can to obtain their eventual release.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: As you said, it\u2019s been two years. Has there been any \u2013 is there any plans to ramp up efforts?<\/p>\n

MR TONER: Ramp up efforts in this particular regard? I mean, look, we \u2013 we\u2019re working closely. I mean, this is obviously a Nigerian Government-led effort. I would say we\u2019ve continued to ramp up efforts over the past couple of years, not only because of this incident but because of repeated ongoing Boko Haram terrorist activity attacks on innocent civilians across Nigeria. I think, certainly, we recognize \u2013 and this terrible kidnapping was just a very vivid and heartbreaking example of it \u2013 but we realize that there\u2019s an urgency here, that Boko Haram is exerting a terrible influence and is really a scourge on the Nigerian population.<\/p>\n

So of course we\u2019re looking at ways that we can ramp up our support for Nigeria\u2019s security services. But as I said, also the other aspect of this is assistance \u2013 any assistance that we can provide to help the victims of these attacks, whether they\u2019re from the terrorist attacks or kidnap victims as well.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: And —<\/p>\n

MR TONER: Please, go ahead and finish. Yeah.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: Sorry, one final.<\/p>\n

MR TONER: No, that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: And have these efforts been unilateral or have you been working with other governments outside of the Nigerian Government as well?<\/p>\n

MR TONER: We have been working with other governments in the region as well as, I believe, some other governments. I don\u2019t have a list in front of me, but —<\/p>\n

QUESTION: Can I get that later?<\/p>\n

MR TONER: — I think it\u2019s been a joint effort. We can certainly get that for you, of course.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: Great. Thank you.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: On the same topic \u2013 on the same topic —<\/p>\n

MR TONER: Yes, sir. Yeah.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: Yeah. Why is Boko Haram not getting the proper attention like, let\u2019s say, ISIL and so on? Is it something that\u2019s \u2013 does it seem real far away, is it out of the public eye? Although it was the First Lady herself that basically carried a sign that said, \u201cBring our girls home.\u201d Why is that? Why in your opinion?<\/p>\n

MR TONER: So I would \u2013 just circling back to her question \u2013 I will get to you \u2013 but we do actually \u2013 another aspect of our efforts to assist in the \u2013 in \u2013 is that we do have a team in Abuja who consists of specialists on temporary assignment from a variety of U.S. Government agencies who are trying to work on assisting the Nigerian Government on this particular case.<\/p>\n

So your question, sorry, is just —<\/p>\n

QUESTION: My question is —<\/p>\n

MR TONER: Yeah.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: — it seems off the radar screen, Boko Haram. Although there was at the beginning a great deal of spotlighting of the issue, but then it seems to have faded away. Why is that?<\/p>\n

MR TONER: I mean, we do speak publicly about these attacks when they take place \u2013 condemning them, obviously, very strongly. I think, as we\u2019re doing even in \u2013 against ISIL, part of the challenge in all of these is trying to build the capacity of local government and local security forces to take the fight to these terrorist groups, because that\u2019s the ultimate solution, right? I mean, we\u2019ve seen it in Iraq as well is \u2013 the ultimate endgame here is to build the capacity of local authorities to deal with these terrorists. And I think that requires a lot of effort, a longer period of training and assistance, but ultimately, as I said, is the better long-term outcome \u2013 to build that capability, that capacity. And we\u2019ve been doing that. That\u2019s \u2013 as I said, we\u2019ve been working with the Nigerian Government over the past years.<\/p>\n

I certainly don\u2019t want to give the impression that it\u2019s somehow off the radar screen, because they have consistently carried out, as you note, a series of terrible attacks on innocent civilians \u2013 attacking churches, attacking villages, attacking innocent civilians in a variety of circumstances \u2013 and they need to be stopped.<\/p>\n

Please, sir.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: And last time President Buhari of Nigeria was in Washington, or the last time he was here bilaterally \u2013 I think he attended the nuclear summit. The last time he was here bilaterally, he complained that the degree to which he received direct military assistance from the U.S. is curtailed by the Leahy Act because Nigerian security forces are not regarded as proper partners because of their human rights record. Given who else you\u2019re working with around the world \u2013 I\u2019m thinking about the Middle East \u2013 is it still the case that you can\u2019t give as much military assistance to Nigeria as Nigeria would want, and is it in fact the case that it\u2019s the Leahy Act that restrains that, that there are concerns about the human rights records of the Nigerian forces?<\/p>\n

MR TONER: I mean, to be perfectly honest, I\u2019d have to \u2013 and candid, I\u2019d have to look into those \u2013 his alleged \u2013 or his remarks about that. I can say that, just as they are in the Middle East, any military equipment or assistance we have \u2013 or we give, rather, whether \u2013 as I said, to whatever country, whether it\u2019s in the Middle East or elsewhere in Africa, is subject to Leahy vetting. That\u2019s just something that we\u2019re required by law to do, for good reason. We cannot, obviously, give military equipment to units, battalions, what have you, that have been allegedly carrying out human rights abuses. That\u2019s just something we have to do for any of this stuff.<\/p>\n

That said, there are ways that we can still \u2013 and I believe we are working effectively with the Nigerian Government to provide them with the support they need.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America, April 7, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — Mark C. Toner Deputy Spokesperson Daily Press Briefing Washington, DC April 6, 2016 (Excerpt \u2013 Nigeria): QUESTION: — regarding the Chibok girls. What has the U.S. Government done since 2014 to help facilitate their return? MR TONER: Right. You\u2019re talking about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-67522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}