#BringBackOurGirls
365 days ago, in the dead of night, 234 school girls were kidnapped from their boarding school in Chibok, Nigeria. In the days following the April 14, 2014 kidnapping, the world stood up together, and the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls trended worldwide with over four million tweets. One year later and the girls are still missing.
Boko Haram,an Islamic Jihadist and terrorist organization based in northeast Nigeria, claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. Boko Haram wants to institute an Islamic government and remove western style education, culture, and beliefs from the area. Thousands of people have been killed in attacks by the group and the Nigerian Federal Government announced a state of emergency in May of 2013. Since 2010, Boko Haram has targeted schools, killing hundreds of students. A spokesperson for the group said similar attacks would continue as long as the Nigerian government continued to interfere with traditional Islamic education.
The night of the kidnapping, Boko Haram militants broke into the dorms pretending to be guards, making the girls get into trucks. They took the students into an area of the Sambisa Forest. Initial reports said that 85 students had been kidnapped but those reports were later retracted and on April 21st, parents and police said that a total of 234 girls were taken. A small group escaped a few days after the kidnapping, making the number of girls that are still missing 219. Release of the girls was expected after the Nigerian army declared a truce with Boko Haram on October 17th, 2014. The announcement came on the six month anniversary of the kidnapping.
You may ask yourself, “How can more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls simply disappear? And how can Nigeria and the rest of the world allow this to happen?” After the attack, Amnesty International revealed that the Nigerian government knew about the attack four hours before it happened, but because of resources and personnel being stretched too thin, the government was unable to prevent it. The Nigerian government felt the weight of burden and took action. United States, France, United Kingdom, and China all offered their support as well.
Villagers living in the Sambisa Forest, where Boko Haram takes refuge, have reported sightings of the students and have been able to track the movement of the girls and their captors across north eastern Nigeria. According to girls who have escaped, they say students have been forced to convert to Islam and get married with other members of Boko Haram. Sources say the price for the “brides” is 2000 Nigerian Naira, which is the equivalent of 10 US dollars. Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, released a video of him claiming responsibility and stating, "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.
There has been little progress in the return of the 234 missing girls. After the kidnapping, weeks turned to months and there is still no sign of the missing girls. The spotlight on the campaign to get them back faded. People stopped tweeting. They stopped marching. They stopped pleading with the Nigerian government to do more to rescue the young students. As the months pass, our chances of recovering the girls grows slim. It’s up to the rest of the world to stand together again and make a difference. These arent just people; they are young women with hopes and dreams and aspirations.They don’t deserve the life of slavery and oppression they are being forced to live. Desmond Tutu once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”