reconnaissance missions over Nigeria, it has been reported

The RAF is sending three warplanes to help locate the Nigerian schoolgirls taken by an Islamist terror group, it has been reported.

Four months ago Boko Haram, which is fighting to reinstate a medieval Islamic caliphate in religiously mixed Nigeria, abducted more than 200 schoolgirls from the village of Chibok and they remain missing.

Now, three RAF Tornado GR4s outfitted with surveillance equipment are being deployed to the African nation to fly reconnaissance missions over the region the group is known to operate in.

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Eye in the sky: Three RAF Tornado GR4s are being deployed to search for the 200 missing Nigerian schoolgirls

Taken: Boko Haram abducted more than 200 schoolgirls (pictured) fom the village of Chibok four months ago

A Government source told The Times that the fighter bombers will help the Nigerian authorities by tracking the movements of Boko Haram militants.

According to the report, the mission is dependent on a nearby nation giving them permission to use a runway.

An MOD spokesman did not deny the report about the deployment of the planes, adding: 'The UK continues to work with the U.S., France, Nigeria, its neighbours and international partners to provide advice and assistance to the Nigerian Government.

'Together with our allies we have provided continuous surveillance support to the Nigerian authorities, including satellite imagery. We are still in discussion with partners on the deployment of further surveillance capability.'

Earlier this month suspected Islamist Boko Haram fighters have abducted dozens of boys and men from a village in northeast Nigeria, according to witnesses.

After loading them onto trucks and driving them off more 97 people are now missing.



THE TORNADO GR4: THE ROYAL AIR FORCE'S EYE IN THE SKY Engines: Two Rolls Royce RB199 Mk103 turbofans. Thrust: 16,000lbs each. Max speed: 1.3Mach. Length: 16.72m. Max altitude: 50,000ft. Span: 8.6m. Aircrew: 2 The RAPTOR pod, substituted in place of weaponry, is one of the most advanced reconnaissance sensors in the world and greatly increases the effectiveness of the aircraft in the reconnaissance role. Its introduction into service gave the GR4 the ability to transmit real-time, Long Range Oblique Photography (LOROP) to commanders or to view this in cockpit during a mission. The stand-off range of the sensors also allows the aircraft to remain outside heavily defended areas, thus minimising the aircraft’s exposure to enemy air-defence systems. Source: RAF Advertisement

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in a video he sent taunting the Nigerian government over the kidnapping of the girls from their boarding school dormitory in April

Several witnesses who fled after the raid on Doron Baga, a sandy fishing village near the shores of Lake Chad, said militants clothed in military and police uniforms had burned several houses.

'They left no men or boys in the place; only young children, girls and women,' said Halima Adamu, sobbing softly and looking exhausted after a 110 mile road trip on the back of a truck to Maiduguri, capital of the northeastern state of Borno.

'They were shouting 'Allah Akbar' (God is greatest), shooting sporadically. There was confusion everywhere.

'They started parking our men and boys into their vehicles, threatening to shoot whoever disobey them. Everybody was scared.'

Firefighters and rescuers extinguish a fire at the scene of a bomb blast at Terminus market in the central city of Jos, Nigeria. Twin car bombings attributed to Boko Haram Islamists in May killed at least 46 people

They said six older men were also killed in Sunday's raid, while another five people were wounded.

Boko Haram, seen as the number one security threat to Africa's top economy and oil producer, has dramatically increased attacks on civilians in the past year, and the once-grassroots movement has rapidly lost popular support as it gets more bloodthirsty.

Its solution - kidnapping boys and forcing them to fight and abducting girls as sex slaves - is a chilling echo of Ugandan rebel Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, which has operated in the same way in Uganda, South Sudan and central Africa for decades.

The kidnappers overpowered local vigilantes who had no support because this is no military presence there, the villagers said.

Talatu Abubakar, another villager who fled to Maiduguri, said the invaders had taunted the men for being unable to defend themselves.

Plight: A woman attends a demonstration in Lagos, Nigeria, in May urging the government to increase efforts to rescue the hundreds of abducted students from a secondary school

'They were shouting 'Where is your pride? You people used to be warriors. Today you are all just women, not as brave as we thought',' he said.

He said that from his Hadeija clan alone, some 47 people were missing and feared to have been abducted.

The raid shows how mobile Boko Haram units can be.

After a military offensive in May last year broke their hold on the area around Lake Chad in the far northeast of Borno state, the rebels relocated to the south of the state, near the Cameroon border nearly 300 km (190 miles) away. Chibok, where the girls were taken from, is in this area.

Their re-appearance in the area demonstrates their ability to move across vast swathes of northeastern Nigeria without being intercepted by the military.