BBOG Marks First Anniversary For Abducted Chibok Girls

The Bring Back Our Girls Group on Tuesday, marks the first anniversary of Boko Haram’s abduction of 219 schoolgirls from the north-east town of Chibok, as part of a series of events planned around the world.

The commemoration and renewed called  for the release of the Girls came as Amnesty International said the Islamists had kidnapped at least 2,000 women and girls since the beginning of last year.

The UN and African rights groups also called for an end to the targeting of boys and girls in the conflict, which has left at least 15,000 dead and some 1.5 million people homeless, 800,000 of them children.

The focus of the one-year commemoration was on Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, where a vigil has been held demanding the girls’ immediate release almost every day since they were kidnapped.

In New York, the #BringBackOurGirls campaign said the Empire State Building would be lit in its colours of red and purple, to symbolise an end to violence against women.

Prayers, candlelit vigils and marches have been held or are planned and campaign group member Habiba Balogun said it was important to mark the anniversary.

“It’s wonderful that the world is remembering and sending the message that we are not going to forget and we are not going to stop until we know what has happened to our girls” .

Boko Haram fighters stormed the Government Secondary School in the remote town in Borno state on the evening of April 14 last year, seizing 276 girls who were preparing for end-of-year exams.

Fifty-seven escaped but nothing has been heard of the 219 others since May last year, when about 100 of them appeared in a Boko Haram video, dressed in Muslim attire and reciting the Koran.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has since said they have all converted to Islam and been “married off”.

The mass abduction brought the brutality of the Islamist insurgency unprecedented worldwide attention and prompted a viral social media campaign demanding their immediate release.

Nigeria’s government was criticised for its initial response to the crisis and was forced into accepting foreign help in the rescue effort after a groundswell of global outrage.

The military has said it knows where the girls are but has ruled out a rescue effort because of the dangers to the girls’ lives.

In a new report published today, Amnesty quoted a senior military officer as saying the girls were being held at different Boko Haram camps, including in Cameroon and possibly Chad.