Give Tradition A Chance

"We're not saying we are better than the soldiers, but we know the bush better than the soldiers."
"We are seasoned hunters, the bush is our culture and we have the powers that defy guns and knives; we are real men of courage, we trust in Allah for protection, but we are not afraid of Boko Haram."
"If government is ready to support us, then we can being back the girls. But if they are not, they should tell us so that we can disband and return to our homes and family."
Baban Kano, Nigerian hunter

Haruna Umar/Associated Press -- Armed hunters gather Sunday as volunteers to look for approximately 300 abducted schoolgirls in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Hundreds of hunters armed with homemade rifles, poisoned arrows and amulets say their spiritual powers can lead to to the girls.

And they're an impressive groups, those traditional Nigerian hunters. Armed with homemade guns, poisoned spears and amulets to ward off evil spirits they gathered in their hundreds, offering their skills and their supernatural powers to aid in the as-yet fruitless search for the almost 300 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic extremists from their boarding school in the remote northeastern town of Chibok.

These traditional warriors are no more pleased by the inaction of their government than are the grieving parents of the abducted schoolgirls. Some five hundred in number, their ages varying from 18 to 80, they claim to have been specially selected by their peers in recognition of their traditional spiritual hunting skills. They have been biding time for two weeks in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital which has distinguished itself by being the birthplace of Boko Haram.

They await the official backing of the military, to enable them to discharge what they see as their obligations to the wider community in restoring the girls to their families. To approve of their determination to launch their own search and rescue operation, the military would be effectively agreeing that their own efforts have been dispiritedly useless let alone faint-hearted.

In a demonstration of their hunting skills, cow horn trumpets blazed through the atmosphere alongside eerie war cries from the chanting men twirling knives and swords. When they occasionally stab or cut themselves in the process, no evident harm appears to have been done. The hunters insist that their magic charms prevent any blood from being drawn.

Amulets of herbs and unknown substances wrapped in leather pouches along with cowrie shells, animal teeth and leather bracelets are their assurance that no harm will come to them from bullets fired at them. They represent three northeastern states in a demonstration that word of the abduction of the hundreds of girls has touched them deeply along with the apparent lack of reaction from the government.

On the scene in the vast tracts of the forest to which the girls were said to have been taken, American aircraft and camera-carrying drones are searching through the Sambisa Forest. Military teams from the United States, Britain, France, Spain and Israel are in evidence. Their experience and expertise in surveillance, intelligence gathering, counter terrorism and hostage negotiations represent the hope that something meaningful may result from their presence.

Yet for all their high-tech equipment and expertise, the areas under search are unknown to them.

Whereas the armed hunter-trackers know their own country and how to survive within it and the best practise of traditional terrain tracking to obtain results. They are eager to set out in search of the 276 schoolgirls remaining in captivity. And where a government spokesman stated that "Our troops are out there combing the forests", the hunters claim to be reaching the end of their patience.