Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) condemned the actions of terrorist organization Boko Haram on Monday after the group announced plans to sell more than 200 kidnapped Nigerian girls into slavery.
Portman and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the co-chairs of the Senate Caucus to End Human Trafficking, said the organization’s actions showed a disregard for basic human rights.
“Boko Haram’s disgusting announcement shows a criminal disregard for the most fundamental of human rights,” Portman and Blumenthal said. “Sadly, while this event is tragically large in scope, it is neither new to Nigeria, nor isolated to that corner of the globe. Human trafficking is a horrific reality faced by more than a million children around the world annually, and we will continue the fight to combat it both at home and abroad.”
Portman and Blumenthal also co-sponsored a Senate resolution that condemned the abduction of the Nigerian girls.
The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that the U.S. would send U.S. law enforcement and military assistance to Nigeria to help recover the girls, USA Today reports.
“We’ve already sent in a team to Nigeria,” President Obama said, according to USA Today. “They’ve accepted our help through a combination of military, law enforcement and other agencies who are going in, trying to identify where in fact these girls might be and provide them help.”