A little over a month ago, 300 schoolgirls in a boarding school in Chibok, Northern Nigeria, were rounded up and taken from their school by fringe Islamic group Boko Haram. For some time international media was near-silent about the devastating event; until the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, calling for international support to help find the girls and bring them home, went viral….
What’s Happened:
On the 14th of April armed men from Boko Haram torched the school and abducted the girls, taking them in a convoy of trucks to the rebels’ camp deep in the bush. Shortly after, the group’s leader declared in a video that God had instructed him to sell the girls into slavery. Now, the kidnaps continue with eight more girls having been abducted in the same area over the past few days.
Immediately after the kidnapping, family members of the girls formed makeshift search parties and ventured into the forest to find the girls armed with homemade weapons, but they have not found the girls and it is feared they have been sold into slavery already.
In an interview with ABC’s Sarah Ferguson, Hadiza Bala Usman said, “We have no information on what is happening to the girls in the camp. Some of girls that escaped after the 11th day had confirmed that all of them were together in the camp for the first 11 days. Post 11 days they were splitting them into separate units and taking them to some different locations, but for first 11 days, they were all together in a group. We have no confirmed or verified information as to exactly where they are now, exactly what status they are. We’ve had some information that some of them have died from snake bite and 20 of them are ill, but that of course is not confirmed or verifiable information.”
What’s Being Done:
Since the horror of the situation in Nigeria has become internationally public knowledge, celebrities and people of influence including Michelle Obama, Malala Yousafzai, Hillary Clinton and Amy Poehler have taken to social media to support Bring Back Our Girls — a campaign that encourages military intervention to recover the girls.
With outrage growing, protests have taken place around the world, with over 75 protesters rallying outside the Nigerian embassy in Washington wearing Bring Back Out Girls t-shirts and the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag has been tweeted well over a million times.
The Nigerian police have just offered a 50 million naira ($324,600) reward for information leading to the girls’ rescue — a sign that the government may be starting to respond to the pressure to act.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has said security forces are doing all they can to find the girls, and it has been said that the government is in negotiations with the terrorists who are demanding an unspecified ransom for the students’ release.
In the US, the State Department are sending a ‘co-ordination cell’ including military personnel and law experts to Nigeria. President Obama has pledged his support saying, “’We’re going to do everything we can to provide assistance to them.
‘In the short term our goal is obviously to help the international community, and the Nigerian government, as a team to do everything we can to recover these young ladies.’
In the UK, British Special Forces have been put on standby and Military Chiefs in London are considering sending in the Special Air Service and the Special Boat Service to help the search.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has reportedly pledged assistance, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said a special team was at Nigeria’s disposal.
On Tuesday here in Australia, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop directed her department’s head of counter-terrorisn to contact the Nigerian High Commissioner to offer support.
Nigerian police also announced a reward of about $310,000 for information leading to the girls’ rescue.
Watch below to see Nigerian movie star Stella Damasus shares the challenges the Nigerian Government face on the search and rescue of the 234 girls abducted in Northern Nigeria by the BOKO HARAM terrorist group
