On April 14, 2014, gunmen from the Islamist group Boko Haram seize 276 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno state.
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LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – Hundreds of people marched in Nigeria’s main cities on Thursday to demand the safe return of girls who were abducted by Boko Haram extremists two years ago from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok.
About 15 girls featured in the new video, saying they were from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok and pleading with the Nigerian government to cooperate with Boko Haram on their release. The girls in the video say that they are being treated well but want to be returned home.
Nigeria’s government had held talks with Boko Haram which had previously agreed to release the girls only in exchange for the release of captured members in Nigeria prisons. Early reports said that the young girl identified herself as one of the girls abducted from Chibok two years ago, but she really was taken from Maiduguri roughly a year ago.
After they were abducted, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said they had converted to Islam and threatened to sell them into slavery or force them to marry his fighters.
Two years later, Boko Haram’s now seven-year insurgency has killed 20,000 people and spread into three neighboring countries.
An worldwide media campaign is launched, backed by personalities including US First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai.
More needs to be done by the Nigerian Government and the global community to keep them safe from the horrors other women and girls have endured. The video was played by CNN to some of the mothers of the missing girls, who betray their emotions as they recognise all of the pupils lined up against a wall in the clip played on a laptop. “Now we can believe these girls are still alive and we pray that they are released soon”. Their exploitation, while alarming, could actually indicate the military’s offensive against Boko Haram is working.
One mother, whose daughter was not among those shown in the video said as she watched, “I didn’t see my daughter, but I now have hope that she is alive”. “My Saratu”, one woman whispered after seeing her daughter, before they managed to name all 15 girls. Amnesty International estimates about 2,000 girls and boys have been abducted by Boko Haram since 2014.
“The now haphazard approach to the rehabilitation of rescued captives has left majority psychologically, socially and culturally vulnerable”, they added in an article published on blog.crisisgroup.org. “You were damned if you do and damned if you don’t”.
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Sani while commenting on how the current government would know the credibility of Boko Haram negotiators said, “We should be very careful at this time”. No, I think [Boko Haram] crave attention and that hashtag maybe gave them more attention, [but] at the same time maybe made the government also realize the danger of Boko Haram, so I think the life of the girls was not put in any danger by the hashtag because I think that hashtag even helped in preserving the girls.
