Missing Chibok girls a blight on our humanity

Members of Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement protest along the streets of Abuja to mark 1 000 days since the abduction of the Chibok School Girls by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria's Borno State on April 14, 2014. Photo: Olatunji Obasa/Xinhua

Members of Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement protest along the streets of Abuja to mark 1 000 days since the abduction of the Chibok School Girls by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria's Borno State on April 14, 2014. Photo: Olatunji Obasa/Xinhua

Published Jan 10, 2017

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When Boko Haram kidnapped 276 Nigerian schoolgirls in April 2014 there were no airstrikes or international troop deployments, writes Aakash Bramdeo.

A thousand days later and many of the kidnapped Nigerian girls have not yet been found.

It was way back in April 2014 that Boko Haram fighters stormed a high school in the small town of Chibok, a remote region in northern Nigeria.

They kidnapped 276 girls.

People around the world protested. But there were no “targeted airstrikes” or cruise missiles launched. No country deployed special forces to action the slogan “bring back our girls”.

Eighty-one of the girls are now free. They escaped or had their freedom negotiated. But 195 girls are still missing.

The Nigerian government, which failed to act decisively in the aftermath of the kidnapping, had yet more words.

President Muhammadu Buhari said he was committed to ensuring the abducted girls were reunited with their families “as soon as practicable”.

Until they are, it is a blight on our collective humanity.

* Aakash Bramdeo is the editor of the Daily News

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