African first ladies canvass global support to end insurgency

The African First Ladies Peace Mission (AFLPM) has called for global support to end Boko Haram insurgency, saying the decade-long crisis has taken a toll on the welfare and livelihoods of rural women, girls, and children.

The Special Assistant to the President on African First Ladies Peace Mission, Dr. Mairo Al-Makura, made the call in a statement on the occasion of the 2020 International Day of Rural Women.

She said: “We enjoin the world to rally behind Africa to overcome the challenge of insurgency, which has gravely affected the rural women and their livelihoods.

“Insurgents attack mainly the rural communities of the Lake Chad region and women and girls suffer abduction or rape or even get killed.

“Insurgency leaves the farms fallow and underutilised as even those not yet displaced are scared to venture into the farmlands. So, this is a problem the world must make haste to address more aggressively.”

Dr. Mairo, therefore, called for more support for rural women and girls, saying that the continent could build back better from the rubbles of the COVID-19 pandemic by strengthening rural women’s sustainable livelihoods and wellbeing.