Officials of the United States, U.S., army has announced that troops deployed were sent to join the search for the Chibok girls kidnapped by extremist Boko Haram sect. Chuck Prichard, spokesman for the U.S. military’s Africa command in Germany, said that the 80 Air force personnel deployed in Chad to help find nearly 300 kidnapped schoolgirls have already begun their mission, using a drone and Global Hawks.

President Barack Obama said the service members would help with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft for missions over northern Nigeria and the nearby region. The drone deployed for the search is a predator and will be in addition to the unarmed Global Hawks already being used. The new flights will be based out of Chad and allow the military to expand its search to that country. Initially the flights were largely over Nigeria.

Myles Caggins, lieutenant colonel, said that the newly deployed forces would help expand drone searches of the region. About 40 of the troops make up the launch and recovering teams for the drone being deployed there and the other 40 make up the security force for the team.