Obama: 80 US Troops in Chad Seeking Abducted Girls

[happyslug]

31. "Sighted" is a broad term....

Anyway, my comments was that Chad was NOT the normal area for this group, not that they were NOT in Chad. Lake Chad is difficult to traverse by truck, the prefer means to move people in most of the world. If they girls were moved on foot, Lake Chad would NOT be much of a barrier, difficult by doable on foot. On the other hand the best you can move on foot on a constant basis is about 20 miles a day (you can move a lot further in a single day, but the next day you are much weaker, thus people do 20 miles a day on average, either quickly one day and almost nothing the next day, or 20 miles constantly.

Thus it is possible for the girls to have cross Lake Chad, but if I was make a bet, it would be some place in Nigeria itself, for then he girls could have been transported by truck. In the drier area in the North, trucks can go most places (this is also the area where the terrorist operate). In the wetter south, you have something called "Trees" which restrict where you can drive. Furthermore the South is Christian/Animist and NOT the area where this group operates (Also the oil that is in Nigeria is in the South).

One of the problem Obama is facing is this group is allied with the ruling elites of Nigeria. Thus Obama may have moved these Marines into Chad, for Nigeria would NOT leave them in Nigeria, but Chad is close enough for them to move into and out of Northern Nigeria and Niger (Both areas where this group is known to operate).



http://www.fragilestates.org/2012/05/02/west-africa-ethnic-divisions-state-fragility-and-regional-solutions/

This group seems to avoid the Tuareg area of West Africa (Western Niger, Southern an Eastern Mali, South Algeria and South East Libya).



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuareg_people

Here is an Ethnic Map of Africa:

http://worldmap.harvard.edu/africamap/

This group seems to operate out of Custic Ethnic areas, and those areas do NOT extend to Chad.

http://peterslarson.com/2011/01/19/african-conflict-and-ethnic-distribution/

More on Ethnic Groups in Africa and how they relate to modern conflicts in Africa:
http://dev3.cepr.org/meets/wkcn/7/784/papers/PapaioannouFinal.pdf