The White House is moving swiftly to put in place a team at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja that can provide military, law enforcement and information-sharing assistance in support of Nigeria’s efforts to find and free the missing girls, U.S. officials told Mashable.

National Security Council spokesperson Jonathan P. Lalley said the “interdisciplinary team” will be installed with a mission to coordinate with the Nigerian government. It will include members of the Department of Justice, the FBI, USAID and approximately ten staffers from AFRICOM, a Defense Department combatant command group responsible for military relations with African nations.

U.S. Ambassador James F. Entwistle has already met with Nigeria's national security adviser to discuss what the U.S. can bring to the table, while the U.S. overseas office has been in touch with Nigerian authorities, Lalley said.

“Justice and the FBI stand ready to send additional personnel to provide technical and investigatory assistance, including expertise on hostage negotiations,” Lalley said, adding that USAID is working with partners to figure out what the U.S. can do to be ready to provide victim assistance.

“As the president and Secretary Kerry have said,” Lalley added, “we remain committed to doing everything we can to help the Nigerians find and free these girls, and help them return safely home.”

The full team is expected to arrive in Nigeria in the next few days.

Nigerian Defense spokesperson Major General Chris Olukolade (C) speaks to civil-society groups protesting the abduction of Chibok school girls during a rally pressing for the girls' release in Abuja on May 6, 2014, ahead of World Economic Forum. Image: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/

Department of Defense spokesperson Lt. Col. Myles Caggins told Mashable that the AFRICOM team, part of the larger State Department-led "coordination cell" that will operate at the embassy, will have a planning and coordination role to support the Nigerian government.

The military personnel heading to the country will not, he said, physically search for the girls — or the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

"They do not have any specific requests for coordination, yet; however, we expect some level of information-sharing with Nigerians will likely be part of their role," Caggins said. "Nothing is definitive yet."

Former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs PJ Crowley, who is now fellow at George Washington University's Institute of Public Diplomacy & Global Communication, told Mashable the U.S. team will try to help Nigeria implement its plan to rescue these girls.

“We have learned over time, particularly after Iraq and Afghanistan, in situations like this that it's ultimately more effective to work from ideas and solutions developed locally,” he says. “One way or another, they will own the consequences.”

Crowley adds the U.S. instinct might be to rush in and try to save the day. “We are horrified by what has happened — young people held hostage and potentially sold off for simply getting an broad-based education — but Boko Haram is another manifestation of a fringe group trying to use religion to justify violence and impose an intolerant vision on a population.”

“Ultimately,” Crowley says, “this struggle has to be waged and won within Islam. We can help countries like Nigeria develop stronger capabilities but ultimately they have to solve this.”

The girls have been missing since April 15, when a group of Islamic militants with Boko Haram (a name meaning "Western education is forbidden") stormed their high school, and took hundreds of the girls captive. Some of the girls escaped, but 274 remain missing.

Boko Haram's leader claimed credit for the kidnappings in a video on Monday that was acquired by the Associated Press.

In this file image made from video received by the Associated Press on Monday, May 5, 2014, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigeria's Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, speaks in a video in which his group claimed responsibility for the April 15 mass abduction of nearly 300 teenage schoolgirls in northeast Nigeria. Image: File/Associated Press

"I abducted your girls," Abubakar Shekau, the group's leader, said in the video. "By Allah, I will sell them in the marketplace." He added that the girls should marry, and not go to school.

Nigerians have been protesting their government in recent weeks to do more to find the girls, and bring them home. People around the world have joined in, using social media to call upon officials to #BringHomeOurGirls, and express solidarity with the families.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday, "We promise that anywhere the girls are, we will surely get them out."

"It is a trying time for this country," he added. "It is painful."