UNHCR: We Never Said Chibok Girls May Have Been Killed
FG: We are still searching for the girls
Adebiyi Adedapo The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has disclosed that at no time did the body say the Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents about a year ago might have been killed.
Al Hussein, who was reacting to reports in some quarters that he said the abducted Chibok girls might have been killed, denied knowledge of the reports.
The refutal came as the federal government equally yesterday denied knowledge of a report which claimed that the over 200 school girls had been killed.
Rather, Al Hussein warned the leaders of Boko Haram insurgents to stop killing innocent people even as he reminded them that they would stand trial for their heinous crimes.
In a statement he made at the council meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, Al Hussein said the appalling atrocities committed by the Boko Haram insurgents had created a critical human rights situation in northern Nigeria and the Lake Chad region.
According to him, since 2009, when the Boko Haram group turned massively to violence, at least 15,000 individuals have been killed.
He said: “Countless more children, women and men have been abducted, abused and forcibly recruited, and women and girls have been targeted for particularly horrific abuse, including sexual enslavement. Villages and towns have been looted and destroyed. Boko Haram Sect has a specific animus against schools – particularly the education of girls – and its attacks have destroyed or severely damaged at least 300 schools, killed numerous students, and ended with the abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls.”
He called for the immediate stoppage of the despicable and wanton carnage, which he said constituted a clear and urgent menace for development, peace and security.
He said: “Boko Haram leaders must know that they will be held accountable in a court of law for these appalling violations of human rights.”
Meanwhile, while fielding questions from journalists yesterday, the Coordinator of the National Information Centre (NIC) and Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, faulted the claim that the school girls had been killed.
He said such reports should not be believed, adding that the search for Chibok girls continues.
“The search for our girls continues, even after troops have captured Bama and other territories, we are not relenting,” he said.
Omeri said: “Until the search is concluded, we cannot begin to believe such reports, as far as we are concerned, the search for our girls continues, the assurance I can give you is that everywhere is being combed and we are not going to let go.”
He urged Nigerians to be extra vigilant and report suspicious movement in their enrolments before, during and after the governorship and houses of assembly election to security agents.