BY TOPE ADEBOBOYE
It was one night that hell visited the country in all its fury. With horrifying frenzy and ferocity, it berthed at Chibok, a predominantly Christian community in the southern fringes of Borno State. For hours, bombs boomed and bullets pierced the hearts of men and the walls of buildings, sending many to their death and razing several buildings. By the time the dust cleared, over 200 girls, all pupils of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, had been whisked away by rampaging, heavily-armed members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect. Most of the girls are yet to be found till date.
Monday, April 14, 2014 is one day that will forever remain indelible in the minds of millions of people even beyond the shores of Nigeria. It was the day Boko Haram insurgents visited Chibok and kidnapped innocent, defenceless female final year pupils, who had come to the school to sit for the West African School Certificate Examinations (WASCE).
How it began
Since 2010, Boko Haram had been ravaging many parts of the North East region. Headed by a bearded, conscienceless Muslim deviant known as Abubakar Shekau, (who took over the leadership of the group after the founder, Mohammed Yusuf was killed in 2009), the insurgents started their terror activities by attacking government facilities and military personnel. They later graduated into raiding and attacking communities and schools. Prior to the raid on Chibok, Boko Haram had attacked some other schools and abducted pupils. On February 25, last year, the insurgents took their bombs and bullets to the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State. Unleashing sheer terror on the school, the terror group killed a total of 69 boys in the school and razed no fewer than 24 buildings. Entire communities across Borno, Yobe and Adamawa had been pillaged and plundered by the insurgents.
As a result of their activities many schools in the entire region had been shut, and students returned home to their parents and guardians. But as the WASCE drew near, authorities of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok summoned the SSS 3 students back to school to take their final examinations in physics. They were in school when the terrorists suddenly called in the dead of the night. They killed the few security personnel at the gate and made their way to the dormitories of the students. Clad in military uniforms and brandishing assorted weapons of war, they pretended to be military personnel who had come to ferry the pupils to safety. They herded the girls into waiting trucks before setting buildings in the school on fire. Shortly after the incident, it was believed that they were taken to the infamous Sambissa Forest where the terrorists had several camps. Others believed they could have been moved to the Konduga area.
Most of the Chibok girls are aged between 16 and 18. Initially, it was said that 85 of them were captured. It later emerged that those abducted could not have been less than 276. The overall number of students registered for the examination was 530, although no one could say precisely the number of girls that were in the school the night the insurgents visited.
Conflicting reports
The news of the abduction traversed the world quickly, drawing rage from eminent personalities across the globe. In fact, it was the first time the entire world would be coming out with one strong and united voice against the Boko Haram insurgents. But the federal government wasn’t too forthcoming with a response. Many people were of the opinion that a number of top government officials were not too sure of the veracity of the story of the Chibok girls’ abduction. Some openly asserted that the Borno State government had merely hatched a plan, using the purportedly abduction of the Chibok girls, to embarrass the federal government.
A few days after the abduction, the Nigerian military authorities released a statement saying that 100 of the 126 kidnapped girls had been set free by government forces. It turned out that the assertion was false, and the military were forced to withdraw the statement.
On Monday, April 21, some parents in the Chibok area said no fewer than 234 of their daughters were missing. It emerged later that some of the girls actually escaped and were not part of those ferried from the school by the insurgents. Some others jumped down from the trucks in the course of the trip and escaped into the forest. Many of them were later reunited with their families. The police also informed the nation that approximately 276 children were taken by the insurgents in the attack, explaining that 53 had escaped as of May 2. There were yet other reports stating that 329 girls were kidnapped, 53 had escaped and 276 were still missing.
Outrage
Many groups and individuals within and outside the country could not curtail their fury with the Federal Government over its perceived apathy for the rescue of the Chibok girls. From the United States to Europe, Asia and the Middle East, many were they that raised their voices against the activities of Boko Haram, especially its abduction of the innocent girls from where they were seeking knowledge. The hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls, started trending online.
Boko Haram leader, Shekau, on May 5, last year, released a video where he admitted his group kidnapped the girls. He said the girls would be sold off into slavery. That claim further enraged the world, and many world leaders enlisted in the global campaign to rescue the girls. Michelle Obama, the United States First Lady, said she and her husband were outraged and heartbroken by the abduction. Former U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton wrote on her Twitter page: “Access to education is a basic right and an unconscionable reason to target innocent girls. We must stand up to terrorism. #BringBackOurGirls.”
During a visit to Africa, US Secretary of State, John Kerry said the United States would “do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and to hold the perpetrators to justice.”
Frida Ghitis, a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review, did a piece for the CNN where he regretted that the global community had not done enough to help find the girls.
He wrote: “If it had happened anywhere else, this would be the world’s biggest story. More than 230 girls disappeared, captured by members of a brutal terrorist group in the dead of night. Their parents are desperate and anguished, angry that their government is not doing enough. The rest of the world is paying little attention.”
The national outrage against the abduction of the young girls is being spearheaded by the former Vice President of the World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili.
Amnesty International, in its reaction to the abduction, averred that the Nigerian military had four hours advanced warning of the insurgents’ kidnapping, but failed to send reinforcements to protect the school. The military admitted that they were indeed alerted to the advancement of the insurgents, but explained that their overstretched forces could not mobilise immediate reinforcement.
It wasn’t until May 4 that President Goodluck Jonathan would speak publicly about the ordeals of the girls. Responding to a question during a media chat televised live, he sought more information on the girls from their parents.
“We need all information about the girls and we have been asking the parents or their guardians to assist us with their identity, passports or photographs but we are yet to get that. We have had an extended security and one thing I am assuring Nigerians is that we will get the abducted girls out wherever they are.
“The girls’ disappearance will not be another mystery that the world cannot solve. The good thing about it is that we have not heard of any bad news about the girls. We are looking beyond Nigeria to neighbouring countries. I believe that the ordinary people will give us information about where these girls are. We need cooperation from the parents and the guardians, as there is no information about where these girls are yet.”
The president has also claimed that the response had been slow because the government would not want to put the lives of the girls at risk during a rescue operation.
On May 5, Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. In a video released by the group, Shekau stated: “Allah instructed me to sell them. I will carry out his instructions. Slavery is allowed in my religion, and I shall capture people and make them slaves.” He said in the video that the girls were not supposed to be in school but should have been married out as wives, insisting that no girl was supposed to be educated.
On May 11, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, Governor of Borno State, said the abducted girls had been sighted and that they had not been taken across the borders of Cameroon or Chad as earlier believed. The following day, Boko Haram released another video showing about 130 kidnapped girls, each clad in a hijab and a long Islamic chador. In the video, the insurgents’ leader demanded that government should release Boko Haram members in custody so that they too could release the abducted girls and others that they had kidnapped.
Offer of help from across the globe
There has been a lot of response from the international community offering to assist Nigeria in the search for the missing girls. The United Kingdom agreed to send a team of experts to Nigeria to assist in the search, with the experts drawn from the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence, and would concentrate on planning, co-ordination and advice to local authorities. The country also deployed a Royal Air Force Sentinel R1 reconnaissance aircraft in Ghana to assist in the search.
The United States agreed to send experts to Nigeria to assist in the search for the students. The American team included military and law enforcement officers, specializing in “intelligence, investigations, hostage negotiation, information-sharing and victim assistance.” And on May 12, 16 military personnel from US African Command joined the Search and Rescue Operations. On May 22, the US Department of Defense announced that it was deploying an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and 80 United States Air Force personnel to neighbouring Chad to assist in the search and in the fight against Boko Haram. France also offered a specialist team to help in the search, just as it held a summit in Paris with Nigeria and its neighbours to tackle the issue.
China equally showed tremendous concern over the issue. The country announced its intention to make available any useful information acquired by its satellites and intelligence services. In Canada, the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper asserted that his country had joined the international effort to free the schoolgirls, even though details about the extent and duration of the involvement were being kept secret.
At a meeting in Tehran with Tukur Mani, the Nigerian Ambassador to Iran, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said: “Iran has offered to help Nigeria resolve the issue of the abduction of nearly 300 female students in the African country by the Takfiri terrorist group, Boko Haram.”
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on May 11, last year, also offered assistance in locating the missing pupils. Said he: “Israel expresses its deep shock at the crime committed against the girls. We are willing to help assist in locating the girls and fighting the terror that is afflicting you.” The Prime Minister, it was gathered, later sent a team of intelligence experts to Nigeria. In the team were people experienced in dealing with hostage situations who were there to advise, and not as operational troops.
And on July 17, the European Union passed a resolution “calling for immediate and unconditional release of the abducted schoolgirls.”
Testimonies of escaped girls
Some of the schoolgirls that escaped from their captors spoke of their experience. One of the girls narrated how the insurgents divided them into three different camps on their arrival at the forest.
Her words: “When we got to the Sambisa forests, they decided to divide us into three groups and each group was asked to go to a different direction of the forest. We were taken to the camp from where we were able to escape. We never saw the other girls in the other two camps till we managed to run back home.
“Some of them were speaking to us in harsh tone, but others will tell them not to be harsh on us. All of them were holding guns, and many covered their faces. They asked us to always sit very close to one another. Each time we heard the sound of an aircraft, they would ask us to quickly go under the thick shrubs and trees, that no one could spot us there, and the plane would come and go without sighting us.
“We didn’t run in the night. It was towards evening when we went to fetch water. We ran into a Fulani nomad who hid us in his house, then later assisted us to escape further by showing us the path we had to take back to Chibok. From there we got to a village near Chibok and a man who saw us quickly took us into his house and hid us for some time so that the people there would not know we were there, because according to him, some of the Boko Haram informants in the village might want to harm us if they found out we were in the village.”
It was also learnt that some of the girls were actually subjected to sexual and psychological assaults by the Boko Haram insurgents. One of the girls that escaped narrated how she was raped by as many as 15 men.
In June, last year, another girl that escaped from her abductors informed that the girls were, indeed, taken to Sambissa forest. She also described what the place looked like, noting that the entire place was full of trees and shrubs, with no buildings.
Malala’s visit
On July 13, last year, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenage girl that narrowly cheated death after a gunman had attacked her for attending school and who has since become a global icon of resistance against the anti-western education dogma of Islamic extremists, was in Nigeria to support the “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign. The young rights activist met with parents of some of the missing girls and also met with President Jonathan on July 14, which was her 17th birthday. After a closed-door meeting with President Jonathan, the young girl spoke to reporters.
Her words: “I am here in Nigeria on my 17th birthday for a price which is to see that every child goes to school. This year, my objective is to speak up for my Nigerian sisters, about 200 of them who are in the captivity of Boko Haram and I met President Goodluck Jonathan for this purpose.
“I conveyed the voice of my sisters who are out of school or who are still under the abduction of Boko Haram. And for those girls who escaped from the abduction but still do not have education. And in the meeting, I highlighted the same issues, which the girls and their parents told me in the past two days.
“The parents said they really wanted to meet with the President to share their stories with him. And I asked the President if he wanted to meet with the parents of the girls; the President assured me that he would meet with them.
“I spoke to the President about the girls who complained that they could not go to school despite the fact that they want to become doctors, engineers and teachers. But the government is not providing them any facility. They also need health facility, security and the government is not doing anything.
“I also met with the parents of these girls who are still under the abduction of Boko Haram and they were crying and hopeless. But still, they have this hope that there is still someone who can help them.
“They asked me if there is any chance for them to meet the President because at this time, they need the President’s support, so I asked the President if it is possible for him to go and see them to encourage them and the President did promise me that he will meet the parents of these girls.
“I am hopeful that these two promises, the return of the girls from Boko Haram captivity and meeting with their parents will be fulfilled and we will see it soon.”
Shortly after the visit, President Jonathan held a meeting with the parents of the girls.
Bring Back Our Girls group
Since the abduction of the Chibok girls, a group of eminent women has made it their duty to consistently tell the world of the plight of the girls. Known as the Bring Back Our Girls Group, the team is being led by a former Minister of Education and former Vice President of the World Bank, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili. Other arrowheads of the movement include Hadiza Bala Usman, an opposition party member who brought the women together and made her name working with anti-corruption campaigners; Maryam Uwais, lawyer and child rights advocate, and Saudatu Mahdi, who runs a women’s rights group helping to strengthen anti-violence legislation.
Shortly after the abduction of the girls, the group mobilised hundreds of women who began a daily march in the streets of Abuja, trying to force the government to do more to bring the missing girls back home.
Sometime in December, last year, she told a reporter: “Today is day 241, and the girls are still not back. If some people want to move on, it’s their right.
“But they should remember we moved on when 69 secondary school boys were killed, and nothing changed. Now here we are, with many more children killed. Do our children now have to choose between getting an education and dying? Some of us cannot move on and accept that kind of society.”
It’s one year today that the girls were whisked away from their dormitories in the dead of the night. Some of the traumatised parents are said to have died, while many have reportedly become mentally imbalanced. A year after the abduction, the questions still remains on every lip: will the Chibok girls ever be found?
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