Sunday, March 14, was the tenth anniversary of the senseless abduction of the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School. Chibok is a town in Borno state of Nigeria.
At a meeting in Lagos, calls for releasing the remaining girls were renewed. Present at the meeting were relatives of the girls and activists.
A rescued schoolgirl, Grace Dauda, said, “What I would ask the government is to find a way to work towards bringing back our sisters because I know it is only the government that can help us bring back these girls.”
Rebecca Malu, one other rescued girl, said, “They should stay safe. They should stay strong; one day, they will be released like us.”
Some of the girls escaped on their own. However, others have been released over the years through internal campaigns by civil society organizations and government negotiations.
276 girls were abducted from the school. From 2016 to 2017, 108 were rescued by the Nigerian military or freed through a prisoner exchange. About 20 more returned in the last two years.
Thirteen of the girls are presumed to have died, while 112 are still missing. There are no details of the remaining 23!
While in captivity, many of the girls were raped, tortured and were forced to undergo many inhuman experiences. Some were even married off.
A peculiar case is that of Rabiat, a Christian teenager, when she was abducted. She was forced to become a Muslim. She was then married off, first to one fighter and then another. She was also forced to become a mother of a seven-year-old son and two daughters aged five and two.
The best the parents of the missing girls could do is to hope that their daughters will return one day!
