news of the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from their dormitory in
Chibok town, in Nigeria's North-East state of Borno by Boko Haram
insurgents.
On April 14, 2014, 276 female students were kidnapped from the
Government Secondary School in the sleepy town of Chibok where they
were camped writing their West Africa School Certificate Examination.
The sect broke into the school, pretending to be security guards,
telling the girls to get out and come with them. A large number of
students were taken away in trucks, possibly into the Konduga area of
the Sambisa forest where Boko Haram is known to have fortified camps.
Since 2010, the dreaded sect has targeted schools, killing hundreds
of students. A spokesperson for the group had said that such attacks
would continue as long as the Nigerian government continued to
interfere with the traditional Islamic education.
The sect is notorious for kidnapping girls, whom it believes should
not be educated, but used as cooks or sex slaves.
Shortly after the abduction of the Chibok girls, critics took over the
Nigerian public discourse doubting the seriousness of the Federal
government effort to ensure the release of the girls or not. Some saw
the abduction as a hoax which never existed.
They argued and questioned how such number of girl students would
have enrolled for WAEC in that school. Some reasoned that if the
abduction ever took place, it was pre-arranged.
Over one and a half years after their abduction, the whereabouts of
the girls remain a mystery as the military continues to comb the
Sambisa forest where it was initially believed that the girls were
kept.
Chronology of travails
Days after the incident, video clips released by the sect showed that
the students were forced to convert to Islam and into marriage with
members of Boko Haram, with a reputed "bride price" of ₦2,000 each.
Many of the students were suspected to have been taken to the
neighbouring countries of Chad and Cameroon, with sightings reported
of the students crossing borders with the militants, and sightings of
the students by villagers living in the Sambisa Forest.
On May 2 2014, police said they were not sure as to the exact number
of students kidnapped. They asked parents to provide documents so an
official count could be made, as school records had been damaged in
the attack.
On May 4, the then Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, spoke
publicly about the kidnapping for the first time, saying the
government was doing everything it could to find the missing girls.
At the same time, he blamed parents for not supplying enough
information about their missing children to the police.
On May 5 2014, a video in which Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau
claimed responsibility for the kidnapping emerged. Shekau claimed
that "Allah instructed me to sell them…I will carry out his
instructions." and "Slavery is allowed in my religion, and I shall
capture people and make them slaves." He said the girls should not
have been in school and instead should have been married since girls
as young as nine are suitable for marriage.
Chibok is primarily a Christian village and Shekau acknowledged that
many of the girls seized were not Muslims: "The girls that have not
accepted Islam, they are now gathered in numbers…and we treat them
well the way the Prophet Muhammad treated the infidels he seized."
On May 11, Kashim Shettima, Governor of Borno State, said that he had
sighted the abducted girls and that they were not taken across the
borders of Cameroon or Chad.
On May12, Boko Haram released a video showing about 130 kidnapped
girls, each clad in a hijab and a long Islamic chador, and demanded a
prisoner exchange.
A journalist-brokered deal to secure the release of the girls in
exchange for prisoners held in Nigerian jails was scrapped at a late
stage on May 24, 2014 after President Goodluck Jonathan consulted
with U.S., Israeli, French and British foreign ministers in Paris,
where the consensus was that no deals should be struck with
terrorists, and that a solution involving force was required.
On May 26, the Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff announced that the
Nigerian security forces had located the kidnapped girls, but ruled
out a forceful rescue attempt for fears of collateral damage.
On May30, it was reported that a civilian militia in the Baale region
of Northeastern Nigeria found two of the kidnapped girls raped,
"half-dead," and tied to a tree. Villagers said the Boko Haram group
had left the two girls, and killed four other disobedient girls and
buried them.
On June 26, it was announced that Levick, a Washington, D.C. public
relations firm, had received "a contract worth more than $1.2
million" from the government of Nigeria to work on "the international
and local media narrative" surrounding the Chibok schoolgirl
kidnapping.
On July1, a businessman suspected of carrying out the kidnappings of
the school girls, as well as the bombing of a busy market in
northeastern Nigeria, was arrested. Military sources said that he was
also accused of helping the Islamist militant group kill a
traditional ruler, the Emir of Gwoza.
On October 12, it was reported that four girls from the original
kidnapped group had escaped and walked three weeks to freedom in
Nigeria. They said they had been held in a camp in Cameroon and raped
every day.
The hashtag saga and unending protests
In the heat of the campaign for the return of the girls,
#BringBackOurGirls hashtag was launched and went viral across the
globe. The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, was seen
holding a sign with the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag, posted on her
official Twitter account.
Nigerian artist, Sarah Peace subsequently created a public art
installation in Epping Forest depicting the missing girls with black
veiled figures.
Parents and others took to social media to complain about the
government's perceived slow and inadequate response. The news caused
international outrage against Boko Haram and the Jonathan government.
On 30 April and 1 May, protests demanding greater government action
were held in several Nigerian cities. Most parents, however, were
afraid to speak publicly for fear their daughters would be targeted
for reprisal. On May 3 and 4, protests were held in major Western
cities including Los Angeles and London.
At the same time, the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls began to trend
globally on Twitter as the story continued to spread and by 11 May it
had attracted 2.3 million tweets. Several online petitions were
created to pressure the Nigerian government to act against the
kidnapping. On 30 April, hundreds marched on the National Assembly to
demand government and military action against the kidnappers.
Buhari has forgotten us
– parents
Obviously disappointed, the parents of the Chibok schoolgirls
abducted accused both the Federal Government of President Muhammadu
Buhari and the state governments of abandoning them to their fate.
In an event during a session with Graca Machel, widow of Nelson
Mandela recently, the parents said most of them have been displaced
from their homes as a result of the sect's activities. One after the
other, they relayed their painful experiences, commending the Murtala
Muhammed Foundation for providing the platform to redirect the
attention of the world to their plight. In his words, Yakubu Nkaki,
Chairman of the Chibok Girls Movement said: "We are appealing to you
to help us tell the world how we can have our children back. We are
surprised that despite the recent rescue operations carried out by the
military, none of our daughters has been found. 219 of them are still
missing.
"Eighteen parents have been buried since the abduction and we don't
want to bury anyone again. Some of us now live in internally
displaced camps. Boko Haram has destroyed Chibok. No school has opened
since that attack and our remaining children in the community have
been at home doing nothing for nearly two years. We are afraid to go
to the farm; some of us now live in the bush; life has almost lost
meaning."
Ali Askira, whose two daughters are among the captives, is fed up
with the promises that have not yielded results. He wants the
government to give a clearer picture of the situation.
"They should tell us if we will not see them again so that we can
rest," he said in a tone laced with anger. "We have been hearing time
and time again that they will be released but up till now nothing. No
official of the local, state or federal government has visited us
since. They don't even care about how we have been surviving.
Recently, when one man [possibly referring to Olu Falae]was
kidnapped, the president ordered the inspector-general of police to
wade in and he regained freedom but our children, 217 of them are
nowhere to be found. Is it because we don't matter? We are the ones
who struggled to raise these children. What have we done to Nigeria to
deserve this? I prefer to see the corpses of my daughters and accept
my fate than to remain like this."
-TheSunNews
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