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- The 276 girls went missing on April 14 at a school in Chibok
- In the past, Boko Haram leader has said he'll not negotiate with "infidels"
- The girls' abduction occurred in an area where the government doesn't have a firm grip
(CNN) -- With every passing day, the wait for the kidnapped Nigerian girls gets more agonizing.
Boko Haram abducted the nearly 300 schoolgirls and vanished into a dense forest in the northern part of the nation last month. Their abduction sparked a global movement demanding their rescue as throngs took to the streets in cities worldwide.
Officials say 276 girls remain missing. Here's why their rescue is a risky, complicated effort.
It's been more thanthree weeks
Militants herded the girls out of bed April 14 at a school in Chibok. A few of them escaped and shared harrowing tales of fleeing from a nearby forest bordering Cameroon. Relatives roamed through the forest in motorcycles for days, looking for the missing girls. At the time, residents said there were no signs of soldiers searching the area considered a hideout for the militants.
*Map: Where girls were taken
Map: Where girls were taken
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The forest borders Cameroon
Days went by before the government spoke out, giving the militants free reign. Local residents say they've heard reports of convoys of cars filled with girls headed to neighboring Cameroon. The borders between the two nations are porous and don't require much to pass through. In some cases, a simple monetary bribe will get you waved into the neighboring nation in Africa, in this case a list that includes Chad or Niger.
The location and the number of hostages isa factor
The girls' abduction occurred in an area where the government doesn't have a firm grip. The school is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Maiduguri and some 600 miles from the capital of Abuja. And the large number of hostages means airstrikes may not be an option because they can kill captives.
A ground assault isn't a great option either -- not when it is done in unfamiliar terrain against entrenched, well-armed fighters.
Nigerian military isn't the most trustworthy
Hours after the girls went missing, the Nigerian military was facing criticism for its handling of the kidnapping. It said it had rescued all but eight of the girls, a claim it later recanted after their parents said most remained missing. Ensuing attacks have shown that the security forces don't have the capability to protect civilians, which will make many think twice before they provide intelligence.
It's also ill-equipped
Numerous attacks in recent years make it clear that Nigeria does not have the most sophisticated programs to battle terrorism. In addition, it's lacking in intelligence gathering, a crucial element in the search for the missing girls. This has prompted the United States, Britain, China and a host of other nations to step in to fill the gap. The U.S. offer to help includes the creation of a "coordination cell" to provide intelligence, investigations and hostage negotiation expertise, the U.S. State Department said.
Boko Haram beheads negotiators
While negotiations may be an option in some hostage crises, this case may not be so clear cut.
Rights groups have accused Nigeria of using heavy-handed tactics such as illegal searches, torture and extrajudicial killings to crack down on the militants.
As a result, it has eroded trust between the two sides, prompting Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau to say he "will not enter a truce with infidels," U.S. lawmakers said last year.
Abducted girls' families search for them
U.S.: No boots on the ground in Nigeria
Students thought kidnappers were soldiers
A video of Abubakar Shekau, who claims to be the leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, is shown on September 25, 2013. Boko Haram is an Islamist militant group waging a campaign of violence in northern Nigeria. The group's ambitions range from the stricter enforcement of Sharia law to the total destruction of the Nigerian state and its government. Click through to see recent bloody incidents in this strife-torn West African nation:
Bodies lie in the streets in Maiduguri after religious clashes in northern Nigeria, on July 31, 2009. Boko Haram exploded onto the national scene in 2009 when 700 people were killed in widespread clashes across the north between the group and the Nigerian military.
An unidentified official displays burned equipment inside a prison in Bauchi on September 9, 2010, after the prison was attacked by suspected members of Boko Haram on September 7. About 720 inmates escaped during the prison break, and police suspect the prison was attacked because it was holding 80 members of the sect.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, second from left, stands on the back of a vehicle after being sworn-in as President during a ceremony in the capital of Abuja on May 29, 2011. In December 2011, Jonathan declared a state of emergency in parts of the country afflicted by violence from the militant Islamist group.
Rescue workers evacuate a wounded person from a U.N. building in Abuja on August 26, 2011. The building was rocked by a bomb that killed at least 23 people, leaving others trapped and causing heavy damage. Boko Haram had claimed responsibility for the attack in which a Honda packed with explosives rammed into the U.N. building, shattering windows and setting the place afire.
A photo taken on November 6, 2011, shows state police headquarters burned by a series of bomb and gun attacks that targeted police stations, mosques and churches in Damaturu on November 4, 2011. Attackers left scores injured -- probably more than 100 -- in a three-hour rampage in the Yobe state city of Damaturu. Sixty-three people died.
Men look at the wreckage of a car after a bomb blast at St. Theresa Catholic Church outside Abuja on December 25, 2011. A string of bombs struck churches in five Nigerian cities, leaving dozens dead and wounded on the Christmas holiday, authorities and witnesses said. Boko Haram's targets included police outposts and churches as well as places associated with "Western influence."
A paramedic helps a young man injured during one of the multiple explosions and shooting attacks as he leaves a hospital in the northern city of Kano on January 21, 2012. A spate of bombings and shootings left more than 200 people dead in Nigeria's second-largest city. Three days later, a joint military task force in Nigeria arrested 158 suspected members of Boko Haram.
A photo taken on June 18, 2012, shows a car vandalized after three church bombings and retaliatory attacks in northern Nigeria killed at least 50 people on June 17 and injured more than 130 others, the Nigerian Red Cross Society said.
A French family kidnapped on February 19, 2013, in northern Cameroon is released after two months in captivity in Nigeria. The family of four children, their parents and an uncle were kidnapped in Waza National Park in northern Cameroon, situated near the border with Nigeria. One of the captive men read a statement demanding that Nigeria and Cameroon free jailed members of Boko Haram.
A soldier stands in front of a damaged wall and the body of a prison officer killed during an attack on a prison in the northeastern town of Bama on May 7, 2013. Two soldiers were killed during coordinated attacks on multiple targets. Nigeria's military says more than 100 Boko Haram militants carried out the attack.
A deserted student hostel on August 6, 2013, is shown after gunmen stormed a school in Yobe state, killing 20 students and a teacher, state media reported on July 6, 2013. Boko Haram regularly carries out attacks in Yobe, in Nigeria's northeast.
A photograph made available by the Nigerian army on August 13, 2013, shows improvised explosive devices, bomb making materials and detonators seized from a Boko Haram hideout. Gunmen attacked a mosque in Nigeria with automatic weapons on August 11, 2013, killing at least 44 people.
Nigerian students from Jos Polytechnic walk on campus in Jos, Nigeria, on September 30, 2013. Under the cover of darkness, gunmen approached a college dormitory in a rural Nigerian town and opened fire on students who were sleeping. At least 40 students died, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
Soldiers stand outside the 79 Composite Group Air Force base that was attacked earlier in Maiduguri on December 2, 2013. Hundreds of Boko Haram militants attacked an Air Force base and a military checkpoint, according to government officials.
Former hostage and French Catholic Priest Georges Vandenbeusch speaks to reporters outside Paris, France, on January 1, after his release. Vandenbeusch was snatched from his parish church in Cameroon on November 13, 2013. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for kidnapping the priest.
A man receives treatment at Konduga specialist hospital after a gruesome attack on January 26. It's suspected that Boko Haram militants opened fire on a village market and torched homes in the village of Kawuri in Borno state, killing at least 45 people.
Police officers stand guard in front of the burned remains of homes and businesses in the village of Konduga, in northeastern Nigeria, on February 12. Suspected Boko Haram militants torched houses in the village, killing at least 23 people, according to the governor of Borno state on February 11.
Ibrahim Gaidam, governor of Yobe state, left, looks at the bodies of students inside an ambulance outside a mosque in Damaturu. At least 29 students died in an attack on a federal college in Buni Yadi, near the the capital of Yobe state, Nigeria's military said on February 26. Authorities suspect Boko Haram carried out the assault in which several buildings were also torched. In April as many as 200 girls were abducted from their boarding school in northeastern Nigeria by heavily armed Boko Haram Islamists who arrived in trucks, vans and buses, officials and witnesses said. The group has recently stepped up attacks in the region, and its leader released a video last month threatening to kidnap girls from schools.
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
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Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis
Boko Haram members who try to negotiate with the government get beheaded.
"Reports of beheadings seem to go up when there are talks of negotiation. It is plausible that many of these beheadings, which rose in frequency in early 2012, are purges of moderate members who have complained or attempted to negotiate," U.S. lawmakers said.
If there are negotiations going on, they have not yielded results so far.
The group's always on the move
The group doesn't sit still for long. Members hop from one location to another to avoid an intensified government crackdown. They leave their wives behind when they scamper into hideouts deep into the forests, forcing the girls and women kidnapped to perform chores and sexual services.
Shekau is a cold, ruthless monster
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau took credit this week for the girls' kidnapping. "I abducted your girls," he taunted with a chilling smile. "There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell."
He operates in the shadows, leaving his underlings to orchestrate his repulsive mandates. And they have been busy. Days after his video surfaced, more attacks were reported. New details emerged about the abduction of at least eight girls between ages of 12 and 15 on Sunday night in the rural northeast. And an hourslong, grisly assault on a local village left at least 150 people dead.
The bounty on his head may not help much
Shekau has been on the radar of U.S. officials since he came to power five years ago. The United States offered a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to his location. But that may not yield immediate results.
"African warlord Joseph Kony's had a bounty for years. Osama bin Laden was not given up because of the $25 million bounty. And who knows whether this will be the case," said Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent.
