‘We must do more to free schoolgirl captives’
NIGERIA IS marking three years since the mass abduction of nearly 300 schoolgirls by Boko Haram extremists amid anger that government efforts to negotiate their freedom appear to have stalled.
Activists are expected to rally in the capital, Abuja, and the commercial hub Lagos in an attempt to urge President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to do more to free the nearly 200 schoolgirls who remain captive.
Last October, Nigeria announced the release of 21 of the Chibok schoolgirls after negotiations with the extremist group, and said another group of 83 girls would be released “very soon”.
No-one has been freed since then. The government said negotiations have “gone quite far”, but face challenges.
The failure of Nigeria’s former government to free the captives sparked a global Bring Back Our Girls movement.
“It is deeply shocking that three years after this deplorable and devastating act of violence, the majority of the girls remain missing,” independent experts for the United Nations said in a statement this week.
The failure of Nigeria’s former government to free the girls sparked a global Bring Back Our Girls movement and was a factor in Mr Buhari’s 2015 election win over former president Goodluck Jonathan.
The schoolgirls from Chibok village are among thousands of people who have been abducted by the Nigeria-based Boko Haram as it continues to threaten parts of the north-east and has spread into neighbouring countries.
The Chibok abduction is not even the largest. Nigerian officials refuse to acknowledge the abduction of more than 500 children from the north-eastern town of Damasak in November 2014, Human Rights Watch said last month.
Mr Buhari announced late last year that Boko Haram had been “crushed”, but it continues to carry out deadly suicide bombings, often strapping them to young women.
Children have been used to carry out 27 attacks in the first three months of this year, already nearing last year’s total of 30, the UN children’s agency said this week.
On Wednesday, Nigerian security officials said they had thwarted plans by Islamic State group-linked Boko Haram members to attack the embassies of the US and UK, along with “other Western interests” in the capital.
One faction of Boko Haram is allied with IS.
Nigeria’s military in the past year has rescued thousands of Boko Haram captives while liberating towns and villages from the group’s control, but many have been detained as possible Boko Haram suspects.
Boko Haram’s seven-year Islamic uprising has killed more than 20,000 people and driven 2.6 million from their homes, with millions facing starvation because of the disruption in markets and agriculture.