The support committee created for the release of more than 270 high school girls kidnapped ten years ago in Chibok, Nigeria, called on Sunday, April 14, the authorities not to forget the hundred of them still missing.
On April 14, 2014, 276 young girls were kidnapped by the jihadist group Boko Haram in Chibok, in Borno State (North-East). This mass kidnapping made headlines around the world and sparked an international campaign called “Bring Back Our Girls”. Nearly a hundred of them are still missing.
At a press conference organized by the committee in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, to mark the tenth anniversary of this kidnapping, slogans such as "Bring back our girls now and alive" or "We are fighting for the soul of Nigeria » were chanted by the ten people gathered.
“We demand that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his administration take responsibility before the people to meet our demand to bring back our girls,” said Florence Ozor, the strategic director of the Bring Back Our Girls Support Committee. She also called on the Nigerian president and the federal government to give the families of the schoolgirls “a detailed report of the rescue missions for their missing girls.”
Kidnappings are increasing
The jihadists of Boko Haram and the rival group Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap, by its acronym in English) are still raging in northern Nigeria. The violence has left more than 40,000 dead and more than 2 million displaced since 2009.
“We are disappointed by the failure of successive governments in Borno State since 2014, their inability, refusal or failure to save all our girls for a decade now,” said Dauda Iliya, local leader of the community. Kibaku in Chibok. “There is a clear lack of interest on the part of these governments to put an end to the problems of insecurity, particularly in the North East and especially in the Chibok region,” he added.
“For ten years, girls have been deprived of their decisions, their freedom and their dignity,” recalled Hauwa Abubakar, member of Bring Back Our Girls.
Kidnappings have increased in recent years in Nigeria with the rise of armed criminal groups called "bandits" who operate on highways, from victims' homes and even in schools. More than 1,680 students were kidnapped from Nigerian schools between 2014 and 2022, according to the NGO Save the Children.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to power in May 2023 promising to tackle insecurity in the country. But critics say the wave of kidnappings is out of control in Nigeria.
