Kidnapped in the middle of the night from their boarding school two-and-a-half months ago, the girls are still missing despite an extensive search mounted to find them. Military advisers from the UK, US, Israel and several other countries are in Nigeria helping the authorities conduct the search but so far have been unsuccessful in locating them.
Yesterday, Mr Brown said there may now be a need to take things further by sending in specially trained troops to carry out a dramatic rescue mission. He added that the international community should also offer air support and surveillance equipment to help find the girls. Mr Brown said: "While it is right to recognise there has been a great deal of international support, it is also right to acknowledge that in its hour of need Nigeria does require more helicopter support, more aircraft cover, more surveillance equipment. We have to do more to help the
Nigerian government secure the rescue of the girls." He also backed President Goodluck Jonathan's calls for a better co-ordinated system for sharing intelligence. Although Britain and several African countries have already established an intelligence unit to help the Nigerian authorities, no one has located the camps where the girls are being held and the social media campaign to free them has died down.
