The Washington Post reports that “the Obama administration is conducting surveillance flights over Nigeria in the search for more than 250 abducted schoolgirls and is considering the deployment of drones to the region to bolster the effort, officials said Monday.”  

“Additionally, the administration has all but one of the 27 experts and security officials assigned to the mission already in place in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, officials said. White House press secretary Jay Carney said the team includes five State Department officials, 10 Pentagon planners and advisers who were already in Nigeria, and seven more sent from the U.S. military’s Africa Command, along with four FBI experts in safe recovery, negotiations and prevention of kidnappings.”  

“’The scope of that assistance has been outlined, and it includes military and law enforcement assistance, advisory assistance, as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support,’ Carney said.”  

“Although he would not provide much detail, the summary was the clearest statement yet that the United States will use its own satellite or other surveillance data and provide intelligence analysis for the search effort, which critics of the Nigerian government contend has been lackadaisical and poorly resourced.”