Nigerians react on 21 freed Chibok girls

ITRealms:

Following the agreement brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government, the 21 freed Chibok girls are now fully under the control of the Federal Government, reports ITRealms.

This is coming after two years of their abduction, as Nigerians reacted to the release, pouring encomium on the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari.

ITRealms gathered that one of the early reactions came from the former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, who has been named as co-founder of the Bring-Back-Our-Girls group, who have been on the Federal Government to do whatever possible to ensure that over 200 school girls from Chibok are released and healthy.

For Dr. Ezekwesili, “I can only weep right now, Buhari thank you.’

ITRealms equally gathered that the former Vice President and chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Atiku Abubakar cannot hide his excitement on the release of some of the girls.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Pix: Oby Ezekwesili

Return of Chibok schoolgirl renews hope - HRW

Commentary@ITRealms:

After more than two years, Amina Ali, one of the 276 schoolgirls Boko Haram fighters abducted from a Chibok school in a 2014 attack that sparked lasting international outrage, was found this week. She was reportedly identified by a member of a civilian vigilante group assisting Nigerian soldiers in the fight against Boko Haram.

Amina’s abduction with 275 other classmates from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno state, became the symbol of Boko Haram’s capture of at least 2000 women and children over the course of the seven-year long insurgency in northeast Nigeria sparking international outrage as voiced though the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag, started by local activists. Since their abduction on April 14, 2014, only 57 of the girls had managed to escape at various stages of being captured; 219 remained hostages.

Until three days ago:

Just as Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had boasted, Amina appeared to have been married (by force) and was found with her four-month-old child. The Nigerian army confirmed that a Boko Haram suspect found with her, Mohammed Hayatu, claimed to be her husband.

The return of one of the long missing girls is the best “proof of life,” and might provide the Nigerian authorities with some momentary relief from the unrelenting pressure they face over their failure to secure the girls’ return. That respite can only be temporary, however, not only because – despite the military’s claims of “rescuing” over 11,595 Boko Haram hostages – 218 of the Chibok girls remain missing, but also because of the challenges Amina and her baby will likely face.

While Amina may enjoy the same mental, medical, and educational support as her 57 classmates who escaped earlier, the length of her stay and the intensity of her experiences would require particular attention and treatment. The culture of silence, stigma, and shame around sexual abuse in the religiously conservative areas of northern Nigeria is likely to add to Amina’s trauma.

In 2014, Human Rights Watch documented the range of abuses Boko Haram abductees are subjected to in captivity, including forced conversion and forced marriage, as well as rape and other abuses. More recently, in an April 2016 report, Human Rights Watch cited an interview with a woman who saw 11 of the Chibok girls working at a hospital in Gwoza, Borno state. She said the girls had been forcibly married, with some either pregnant or with babies.

UNICEF and International Alert warned in a February 2016 report about the mistrust and persecution that women and girls who return from abduction with children face upon return to their communities.

The Nigerian authorities should intensify efforts to find the remaining missing girls, as President Muhammadu Buhari recently promised to do. But they should also take urgent steps to ensure that those who do return home find peaceful acceptance, support, and reintegration.


*Mausi Segun
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Nigeria marks 365 days of school girls’ abduction by Boko Haram

ITRealms:

 

Nigeriaand proponents of #BringBackOurGirlson Tuesday marked the first anniversary of Boko Haram's abduction of 219 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok, as part of a series of events planned to eradicate the terrorist group, reports ITRealms.

The sad incident,  ITRealms reports happened on the 14^thApril 2014, when the bokoharam terrorist group stormedthe government secondary school in Borno, while the students were preparing for their school leaving examination.

The one year remembrance programmeand renewed calls for their release came as Amnesty International said that the terrorist group had kidnapped about 2,000 females (including women and girls) since the beginning of year 2014.

The focus of the one-year remembrance program was on Nigeria's capital, Abuja, where prayers and vigils had been held seeking the safe return of the abducted girls, reports ITRealms

The United Nations and African rights groups, it was gathered by ITRealms also called for an end to the targeting of boys and girls (child murder) in the conflict, which had claimed about 15,000 dead and some 1.5 million people displaced, 800,000 of them children.

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HabibatBalogun, a member of the campaign group expressed her grievances on the missing girls, saying that the world at large should not rest on their oars until the girls are found.

"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," she told ITRealms.

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.

The rate of abduction by the terrorist is becoming alarming, and the mass abduction of the chibok girlsbrought the brutality of the terrorist insurgency unprecedented worldwide attention and prompted a viral social media campaign demanding their immediate release.

Criticisms come from different angles on the Nigeria’s government for its initial response to the crisis and were 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 on Tuesday, a senior military officer was quoted as saying the girls were being held at different Boko Haram camps, including in Cameroon and possibly Chad.

The Chibok abduction was one of 38 it had documented since the beginning of last year, with women and girls who escaped saying they were subjected to forced labour and marriage, as well as rape.

#BringBackOurGirlsorganisers thanked supporters across the world, from ordinary men, women and children to public figures such as US First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.

AbdulKareem Mueenah/GEE

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