158 Women and Girls Rescued From Boko Haram

Boko Haram has raised its flag in many towns and villages
 in the north-east over the last year

A group of 158 women and children abducted by Boko Haram militants in north-eastern Nigeria in December have been reunited with their families.

They were kidnapped during a raid on Katarko village in Yobe state and spent about a month in captivity.

The circumstances of their release are unclear but they were eventually handed over to the state authorities for counselling and rehabilitation.

Officials said the reunion in the state capital, Damaturu, was jubilant.

In April last year, the Islamist insurgents caused worldwide outrage when they kidnapped more than 200 mostly Christian girls from a boarding school in Chibok in Borno state, which borders Yobe.

The schoolgirls have yet to be rescued despite military assistance from countries such as China, France, the UK and the US.

A screen grab showing the abducted Chibok schoolgirls - May 2014
The Chibok girls' abduction sparked a social media campaign
 calling for more to be done to rescue them

Of the 158 people reunited with their families, 62 were married women and the rest were children, Musa Idi Jidawa, the secretary of Yobe's State Emergency Management Agency (Sema), told the BBC.

He said husbands of 16 of the women had been killed by Boko Haram during the attack.

Muhammdu Katarko said he was very happy to see his two daughters at the reunion on Thursday.

"I had given up when they were kidnapped; my hope was to see even their dead bodies," he told the BBC Hausa service.

"But fortunately I have now seen them alive, healthy and hearty."

One of the abductees, who requested anonymity, told reporters in Damaturu that they were treated humanely by the militants.

She said the insurgents did not rape or abuse the women during their stay.

The BBC's Ishaq Khalid reporting from neighbouring Bauchi state says there were conflicting accounts about how the abductees gained their freedom.

Some reports suggested the insurgents released them voluntarily and took them to the outskirts of Damaturu, he says.

But Mr Jidawa said the militants had come under attack from the security forces and they had run away, leaving behind their captives.

While it's extremely naive to believe anything that comes out of Nigeria, especially anything 'official', if Mr Jidawa is right, it is another condemnation of the Nigerian government and military for not responding similarly to the abduction of the Chibok girls.

The reunited families will stay in Damaturu until it is safe to return to their village, which is still occupied by Boko Haram fighters and is in an area where the military is carrying out operations.

Boko Haram Kidnaps Dozens of Women and Children from Cameroon

Some of the more than 200 girls kidnapped from Chibok, Nigeria

Suspected militants from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram have kidnapped dozens of people in raids in neighbouring Cameroon, officials say.

They said many of those kidnapped in the cross border attack against villages were children.

Four villagers who tried to fend off the attackers were killed, a security source has told the BBC.
Only 4? Doesn't sound like Boko Haram.

Boko Haram has seized control of towns and villages in north-east Nigeria, and begun threatening neighbouring nations.

Chad, which also borders Nigeria, has just sent soldiers to help Cameroon in the fight against the jihadists.

The BBC's Randy Joe Sa'ah in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, says this is the first time Cameroonian villagers have been kidnapped by suspected militants.

Previous kidnappings in Cameroon blamed on Boko Haram have been more targeted - with high-profile people or foreigners reportedly taken for ransom, he says.

These kidnapped Cameroonians will not be held for ransom as they are only villagers. We know what Boko Haram does with women and girls - turns them into slaves, sex slaves or traffics them. Young boys will be turned into jihadist soldiers.

Many Nigerians from Borno State have crossed into Cameroon to escape
Boko Haram

'Burnt to ashes'
A security source told the BBC that it was the villages of Maki and Mada in the Tourou district near Mokolo city in Cameroon's Far North region, about 6km (four miles) from the Nigerian border, that came under attack.

The suspected militants arrived in the early hours of Sunday morning when it was still dark and left in the direction of Nigeria with scores of hostages.

Cameroon's Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary confirmed the attacks saying between 30 and 50 people were taken in the raids - although he said an exact number was difficult to establish as investigations were ongoing.

"They burnt to ashes almost 80 houses," he said.

A police officer told the AFP news agency put the figure of hostages at around 60, saying "most were women and children".

Officials told Reuters that as many as 80 people had been kidnapped. Those abducted included about 30 adults and 50 children between the ages of 10 and 15, an army officer deployed to northern Cameroon told the agency.

Cameroon has criticised Nigeria for failing to do more to confront Boko Haram. Who hasn't?

Analysis: Randy Joe Sa'ah, BBC Africa, Yaounde, Cameroon

Nigerian refugees wait on 12 November 2014 in a stadium in Mora, in the extreme north-west of Cameroon

Thousands have fled from Nigeria to Cameroon because of militant attacks

There is a lot of anxiety in northern Cameroon because of the growing frequency of Boko Haram attacks - and growing number of those who take part in them. The military is also frustrated at not being able to chase the insurgents once they cross back into Nigeria.

Thousands of Cameroonian troops have been deployed to the north to stem the raids - which Boko Haram's leader warned in a video this month will increase in intensity. But Cameroon's border with Nigeria is long and porous, so it has been difficult to police.

News that Chadian troops are arriving to help patrol it has cheered residents. Tanks and armoured vehicles with Chadian soldiers have been seen arriving over the weekend. Chad's military has an impressive record of taking on insurgents - most recently in northern Mali.

Civilians now hope the countries will come to a deal allowing their armed forces to cross borders so that the militants can be contained.

The militants have kidnapped many people in north-eastern Nigeria, including more than 200 girls from a school in Chibok last April.

Those abductions caused worldwide outrage and sparked a social media campaign organised under the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, calling on the authorities to do more to free the girls - who have still not been found or freed.

Sunday's kidnappings appear to be further evidence that Boko Haram is conducting a regional campaign of violence.

Last year, 27 people seized in Cameroon by suspected Boko Haram fighters were held for months before being freed in October. They included 10 Chinese workers and the wife of Cameroon's Vice-Prime Minister Amadou Ali.

It is not clear how their release was secured.

Several French hostages have also been kidnapped in Cameroon by Boko Haram and subsequently released.

France and Cameroon denied paying a large ransom for the release of the Moulin-Fournier family in 2013.

On Friday, Ghana's President John Mahama said African leaders would discuss plans this week to "deal permanently" with Boko Haram militants, and that a multinational force may be considered. 

Good luck with that, President Mahama, or is it Goodluck? With little more than verbal commitment from Nigeria, a multinational force will never work unless it works in spite of Nigeria, for their military will not be of any significant assistance, despite being the largest military in sub-Saharan Africa.

2 Days - 3 Little Girls Become Human Bombs for Islamic Insanity

Goodluck Jonathon campaigning for re-election
promises the moon but will deliver absolutely nothing and no-one

Two suspected child suicide bombers blew themselves up in a market in northeast Nigeria on Sunday, witnesses said, killing three people in the second apparent attack in two days using young girls strapped with explosives.

I thought this was a war on Christians, but it looks more and more like a war on girls. Someone please do something!

The blasts struck around mid-afternoon at an open market selling mobile handsets in the town of Potiskum in Yobe state, which has frequently been attacked by the Sunni Muslim jihadist group Boko Haram.

A trader at the market, Sani Abdu Potiskum, said the bombers were about 10 years old. "I saw their dead bodies. They are two young girls of about 10 years of age ... you only see the plaited hair and part of the upper torso," the trader said.

A source at the Potiskum general hospital said three people had been killed, excluding the bombers, while 46 were wounded.

The town was hit by a suicide bomber in November when at least 48 people, mainly students, were killed during a school assembly. On Saturday, a bomb exploded at a police station in Potiskum.

Sunday's explosions came a day after a bomb strapped to a girl aged around 10 exploded in a busy market place in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 20, security sources said.

In New York, the executive director for UNICEF said the horrific images coming out of Nigeria should be searing the consciences of the world.

“Some 2,000 innocent children, women and elderly reportedly massacred in Baga," Anthony Lake said. "A young girl sent to her death with a bomb strapped to her chest in Maiduguri and, lest we forget, more than 200 girls stolen from their families, still lost.

“Words alone can neither express our outrage nor ease the agony of all those suffering from the constant violence in northern Nigeria. But these images of recent days and all they imply for the future of Nigeria should galvanize effective action. For this cannot go on.”

Headache for president

Boko Haram has been waging a five year insurgency to establish an Islamic state in the northeast of the country and the army's inability to quash the movement is a headache for President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking re-election in February.

The military lost ground in worst-hit Borno state last weekend after insurgents took over the town of Baga and nearby army base, killing more than 100 people and forcing thousands to flee. Or, it could be 2000 according to some reports. 

The defence headquarters said on Saturday the army was regrouping to retake the area. Right, like that's going to happen.

In the city of Jos in Plateau state, Jonathan's campaign team was hit by two days of violence.

The driver of a campaign vehicle was killed on Sunday by youths who also set fire to a police station, police spokesman Abu Sunday Emmanuel said. On Saturday, two other campaign vehicles were burned.

"The youths were chanting no PDP, no to Jonathan Badluck," a witness said, referring to the ruling People's Democratic Party.

Armed with guns, knives and sticks,
vigilantes have far more courage than the military.

Nigerian traditional hunters have formed groups, commonly called the Vigilantes, that use locally-made weapons to help government forces combat Boko Haram in the rural northeastern regions of the country. 

PDP spokesman Olisa Metuh said in an emailed statement that the government "decried last Saturday's unprovoked attack on President Goodluck Jonathan's campaign vehicles in Jos."

The rest of the world has decried Goodluck Jonathon for his complete concern with himself and his complete unconcern for his people; or is it complete incompetence?

With files from The Associated Press
© Thomson Reuters, 2015 

Reports That Boko Haram May Have Slaughtered 2000 Villagers

As mentioned many times before in writing about Nigeria, one cannot believe anything that comes out of that wretched place. So, take this report with a large spoonful of salt and we will try to confirm or correct in the next few days. If it is true, it is likely that the majority of victims were Christians.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau

Islamist terror group Boko Haram reportedly burned down an entire Nigerian village on Wednesday, killing an estimated 2,000 people.

An official told the BBC that countless bodies lay motionless in the street. Senior Nigerian government official, Maina Maaji Lawan, said that the town Boko Haram had raided, one that had an estimated population of 10,000, now became “virtually non-existent.” “It has been burnt down,” he added.

Boko Haram killed an estimated 2,000 last year in its jihad to expand its self-declared Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, an area with a heavy Muslim population.

If reports are accurate, Boko Haram has just overtaken its 2014 death toll in one day.

The mass slaughter comes after Boko Haram overtook a government military base on Saturday. It is believed that the jihadists launched their attack on the village from the recently-overtaken base. The barracks previously hosted the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF), which hosts soldiers from the governments of Nigeria, Chad, and Niger.

There was a report today that Niger had pulled out of the JTF. Probably a good decision since Jonathon is not going to outfit his military with weapons capable of fighting Boko Haram.

A senior government official told AFP that the group razed at least sixteen towns within the past week. “They burnt to the ground all the 16 towns and villages including Baga, Dorn-Baga, Mile 4, Mile 3, Kauyen Kuros and Bunduram,” said local official Musa Bukar to AFP

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has responded to the attacks by declaring a national State of Emergency, and promising to defeat the terror group.

Nothern Nigeria has been in a state of emergency for two to three years and it hasn't even slowed the terrorists down. I have yet to see Jonathon keep one single promise with regard to Boko Haram or the Chibok girls.

It is now believed that Boko Haram controls up to six times more territory than the Islamic State terror group. Boko Haram rules an estimated 70,000 square miles in northern Nigeria.

Within the last week, Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds, killed dozens (excluding today’s death toll), and destroyed countless amounts of private property.

Military Runs as Boko Haram Seize Last Town in Northern Borno State

A Nigerian soldier on patrol in Baga last year

The militant group Boko Haram has seized a town and key multinational military base in north-eastern Nigeria, officials and eyewitnesses say.

A senator in Borno state said troops had abandoned the base in the town of Baga after it was attacked on Saturday.

Residents of Baga, who fled by boat to neighbouring Chad, said many people had been killed and the town set ablaze.

Baga, scene of a Nigerian army massacre in 2013, was the last town in the Borno North area under government control.

It hosted the base of the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF), made up of troops from Nigeria, Chad and Niger.

Set up in 1998 to fight trans-border crime in the Lake Chad region, the force more recently took on Boko Haram.

Boko Haram attacks towns and villages on an almost daily basis, abducting people including young boys and girls, BBC Africa analyst Mary Harper reports.

The military, which includes Western advisers and surveillance, seems incapable of dealing with the problem, she adds.

Map of Nigeria showing the town of Baga in Borno state

'Helter skelter'
Residents who fled to Chad said they had woken to heavy gunfire as militants stormed Baga early on Saturday, attacking from all directions.

They said they had decided to flee when they saw the multi-national troops running away.

Maina Maaji Lawan, senator for Borno North, told BBC World Service civilians had run "helter skelter" - "some into the forest, some into the desert".

Communications with the town were cut off and exact information about casualty numbers could not be confirmed, he said.

"We are very dispirited," the senator added.

Confirming that the military had abandoned the base, he said people's frustration knew "no bounds" over the apparent fact that the military had not fought back.

"There is definitely something wrong that makes our military abandon their posts each time there is an attack from Boko Haram," the senator said. Gee, ya think?

Goodluck Jonathon's promise to destroy Boko Haram is off to a modest start. The last government controlled town in northeast Borno state should have been an impenetrable fortress, but instead, it's so weak that the military abandon the civilians and run for their lives.

The Nigerian military, like the government, is utterly inept, corrupt, and incapable of protecting its people, or completely indifferent to their fate. They did not make one single attempt to retrieve the Chibok girls, or any of the hundreds of other women and children kidnapped by Boko Haram. It is now too late to save them, they have been integrated into the militant gang of murderers and rapists.

Boko Haram is consolidating its hold on much of Borno state and there seems to be nothing anyone can do about it. The military appears to have done more harm than good in Borno.

Goodluck Jonathon, Abubaker Shekau - leader of Boko Haram,
anxious family after kidnappings from Chibok school

Military massacre

In April 2013, at least 37 people were killed and 2,275 homes destroyed in Baga by troops hunting Boko Haram fighters who had attacked a patrol, Human Rights Watch reported.

The New York-based organisation accused soldiers of engaging "more in destruction than in protection".

Before Saturday's attack on the town, the area was already a stronghold of Boko Haram, which has been waging a bloody insurgency to create an Islamic state since 2009.

More than 2,000 people were killed in militant violence last year in the north-east.

Days before the attack on Baga, suspected Boko Haram militants kidnapped about 40 boys and young men in a raid on the remote Borno village of Malari.

Nigerian Girl Says Parents Volunteered Her as Suicide Bomber

Police said the girl's story made it clear who was to blame for the attacks in Kano

A 13-year-old Nigerian girl has told how her parents gave her to Boko Haram militants to be used as a suicide bomber.

The girl, speaking at a news conference organised by police, said she was taken to the city of Kano where two other girls detonated their bombs.

At least four people died in the 10 December attack. The girl was arrested, still wearing explosives, police said.

About 2,000 people have died in attacks blamed on the Islamists this year.

The girl told journalists that her parents had taken her to militants hiding in a forest near the town of Gidan Zana in northern Kano state.

She said one of the leaders asked her if she knew what a suicide bombing was.

"They said, 'Can you do it?' I said 'no'," she said.

"They said, 'You will go to heaven if you do it.' I said 'No I can't.' They said they would shoot me or throw me into a dungeon."

The girl said she finally agreed to take part in the attack but "never had any intention of doing it".

Scene of attack in Kano market - 10 December

She said she had been injured when one of the other girls detonated her bomb and ended up at a hospital where her explosives were discovered.

It was not possible to independently verify the girl's story. Correspondents said she had no lawyer present.

Kano police said they wanted the girl to tell her story to make the public aware of who was behind the attack.

Kano State Police Commissioner Adenrele Shinaba, quoted by Nigerian media, said police wanted to dispel rumours that the attack had been linked to inter-tribal conflict.

Boko Haram, a Sunni Islamist group, has been waging an insurgency in Nigeria since 2009.

In recent months the group has taken control of a series of towns and villages in north-east Nigeria and has vowed to create an Islamic state in those areas.

Nigerian authorities have struggled to defeat them.

Boko Haram Kidnaps At Least 100 Villagers, Mostly Women and Girls

Militants have stormed a remote village in north-eastern Nigeria, killing at least 33 people and kidnapping at least 100, a survivor has told the BBC.

He said that suspected Boko Haram militants had seized young men, women and children from Gumsuri village.

Is this an indication that Boko Haram is growing? That they need more wives for their soldiers?

The attack happened on Sunday but news has only just emerged, after survivors reached the city of Maiduguri.

Cameroon Army - much better equipped and much more successful in
combating Boko Haram than the hapless Nigerian military

Meanwhile, Cameroon's army says it has killed 116 Nigerian militants who had attacked one of its bases, AFP reports.

"After killing our youths, the insurgents have taken away our wives and daughters” - Gumsuri resident.

Residents told the BBC the armed militants attacked the border town of Amchide on Wednesday, arriving in two vehicles with many others on foot. They raided the market area, setting fire to shops and more than 50 houses.

No group has said it carried out either attack but officials have blamed Nigerian-based Boko Haram militants.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in militant violence this year alone, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria, near the border with Cameroon.

Analysis: Will Ross, BBC News, Lagos
This is yet another abduction on a staggering scale - one of the worst since the Chibok girls were seized in April.

It might seem surprising that it has taken four days for news of the killings and abductions to break.

That points to just how dangerous that area of north-east Nigeria still is despite promises of a massive military deployment there.

Gumsuri is about 70km (43 miles) from Maiduguri, the state capital, but survivors had to travel hundreds of kilometres via a circuitous route to avoid areas overrun with jihadists in order to reach the city and alert people of the horrors they had witnessed.

The vigilantes in the same village has reportedly fought off Boko Haram before but this time they were overpowered.

There has been no word from the military or the government and you have to wonder whether in any other country in the world such a horrific event could take place without a single word from the authorities.


The villagers who were kidnapped were from Gumsuri. The survivor of the Gumsuri attack said that afterwards he returned to the village and helped bury 33 bodies. He said he went from house-to-house to ascertain how many people were missing.

His testimony was confirmed to BBC Hausa by a local official. Neither person wanted their names to be published.

An official told the AFP news agency that a vigilante group that had protected the village from previous attacks was overpowered.

"After killing our youths, the insurgents have taken away our wives and daughters," a resident who fled to Maiduguri told AFP.

In Cameroon, the army said vehicles from its elite battalion had been caught in an ambush on Wednesday.

"At the same time... the Amchide military base was attacked by hundreds of fighters from the sect, but the response from our defence forces was instant and appropriate," AFP quotes it as saying.

One Cameroonian soldier was killed and an officer is missing, it reports.


Who are Boko Haram?

A screen grab taken on 12 May 2014 from a Boko Haram video
 showing the girls kidnapped from Chibok, Nigeria

More than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped by the group in April
Founded in 2002
Initially focused on opposing Western education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language
Launched military operations in 2009 to create Islamic state
Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria - also attacked police and UN headquarters in capital, Abuja
Some three million people affected
Declared terrorist group by US in 2013

Boko Haram militants with leader Abubakar Shekau in the middle

Death penalty

On Wednesday a Nigerian court martial handed down death sentences to 54 soldiers who had refused to take part in an operation last August to recapture three town overrun by the militants.

The soldiers, who were found guilty of mutiny, had complained that they did not have the weapons needed to take on the jihadists.

Boko Haram has been waging an insurgency since 2009 and is seeking to create an Islamist state in north-eastern Nigeria.

Court Martial in Abuja. 2 Oct 2014

Attacks have increased since three states - Borno, Adamawa and Yobe - were put under emergency rule more than 18 months ago.

The kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in Borno state in April sparked international outrage.

Despite military assistance from countries such as China, France, the UK and US, the girls have not yet been rescued. Nor will they ever be, I suspect. The Jonathon government is not the least bit interested in getting the girls back, nor are they willing to allow foreign countries to put boots on Nigerian soil to help.

They are happy with the way it is. It keeps people's minds off the billions of dollars that has disappeared without any effort by the government to find it. Corruption is how the government operates in Nigeria under the guise of being a democracy.

Female Suicide Bombers Are Not Abducted Chibok Girls

Against the disturbing assumptions that Boko Haram may be using some of the abducted Chibok school girls to carry out their recent suicide bombings across northern Nigeria, voices from Chibok town have denied such claims saying none of the photographs of the girls involved in the attacks matched any of the missing girls, LEADERSHIP Sunday reports.

A government official from Chibok town, who spoke under strict condition of anonymity as he feared for his safety, said most of the photographs shown in both the conventional and social media did not match the faces of any of the 219 abducted girls.

About half of the kidnapped Chibok girls

“They can’t be Chibok girls because, the parents are still alive, even some that have died still have other children and relatives who usually see the photographs and judge if any of the suicide bombers resemble the abducted girls; and so far, we have not seen anyone yet”, said the source.

The source, who is also a stakeholder in Chibok, added that, “Though each time we hear girls being used for bombing attacks, we are very worried, but so far, none of them looked like our girls. As a matter of fact, even the ones arrested in Kano and Maiduguri were not speaking like Chibok girls and some of them claim to have come from the North-western states. This actually gives us the assurance that our girls are still alive and perhaps somewhere, and we hope they would return back home some day”.

In the next eight days, the 219 abducted Chibok schoolgirls would clock exactly eight months since their captivity on April 14, 2014. The president of the federal Republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, had on the 21st July met with some of the parents of the abducted girls at the Aso Rock Villa where he assured them that their daughters would be rescued “soon”, but that promise had failed to see the light of the day. (Like everything else Jonathon has said).

Female bomber blows herself up among shoppers in Bauchi state - Al Jazeera

Nov 16, 2014 - A female suicide bomber has blown herself up at a mobile phone market in northeast Nigeria, killing at least 13 people, police have said. "So far, 13 persons were confirmed dead while 65 others sustained various degrees of injuries".

Last week, a bomb concealed in a bag went off near a cash dispensing machine, killing several people.

On October 23, a bombing near a bus station killed at least five people. 

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekeau (centre) and a few soldiers

Time's Person of the Year?

It’s that time of the year where the editors of TIME magazine choose their Person of the Year. Users are encouraged to vote for their choices, too.

Nigeria’s Chibok girls have been included in the list, and paired against the Pope on the face-off polls.

About 276 female students were kidnapped on the night of April 14-15, 2014, from the Government Secondary school in Chibok town, Borno state, Nigeria.

The Boko Haram terrorist sect claimed credit for the kidnap, and the girls are still in captivity.

Dr Stephen Davis
the only hero in Nigeria

This would be a nice honour, not that they would ever know. However, these girls don't need honouring, they need rescuing, and it looks like no-one is interested in doing that. Indeed, in their eight months of captivity only one man has tried to rescue them, Dr. Stephen Davis, an Australian who risked his life for several weeks attempting to negotiate the release of the girls. 

He had a deal in place for about 60 of the girls, but less than 24 hours before the exchange occurred, the deal was sabotaged by the Nigerian Police who suddenly offered a reward for the girls. Whether it was intentional or not, 60 girls almost came home thanks to Dr. Davis, only now they almost certainly have been absorbed into Boko Haram as wives of soldiers.

Escaped Chibok Girls Get to Finish Education in Oregon

BY ANN CURRY
NBC News

Warmly welcomed on her first day of school in America, 18-year-old Mercy Paul smiles brightly — showing no sign of her ordeal in northern Nigeria. She's started a new life at a boarding school in Canyonville, Oregon.

Just seven months ago she was one of the 276 mostly Christian girls kidnapped by Islamist terrorists called Boko Haram.

"There was no way for us to run away," she says. "They told us they would kill us."

With a licensed counselor at her side, Mercy tells us how the terrorists set the girls' school on fire, forced them onto trucks and drove them into the deep forest.

"I jumped," Mercy says, "not knowing if I would be able to walk or whether I would die."

Dozens of other girls also escaped, but more than 200 — some seen in this Boko Haram video — did not. The militants' leader said they had converted to Islam and would be sold "in the market."

Worldwide outrage sparked a "Bring Back Our Girls" movement, with some high-profile support.

Michelle Obama: "In these girls Barack and I see our own daughters. We see their hopes and dreams."

Mercy's dream now is to become a doctor. Learning a new language, and a new culture — basketball, air hockey, and yes, even Super Mario.

And she's excited that some of her Nigerian classmates will join her at school, with the help of the Christian group The Jubilee Campaign, which is raising funds so that all 57 girls who escaped can finish school in the U.S. Mercy's boarding school scholarship was provided by the Canyonville Christian Academy's Chibok Girls Scholarship Fund.

Canyonville Christian Academy

Mercy tells us she loves and misses her friends — her sisters — still being held captive, but asks for mercy for the men who are hurting them.

"In the bible God says that he can talk to people, even in their dreams," she tells us. "I pray that they find that god is forgiving and merciful and that they stop doing what it is that they're doing."

Her faith allows Mercy to smile ... and hope that she'll someday see the friends she left behind.

You are appropriately named, Mercy. I join you in that prayer and for those still in captivity. God bless you.

Anyone who wants to help fund the girl's education can contact the academy at the address or phone number below. Or, go to CCA and donate online.

Canyonville Christian Academy
Private School
Address: 250 E 1st St, Canyonville, OR 97417, United States

Phone:+1 541-839-4401

Teen Girls Kill Dozens as They Blow Themselves up in Packed Nigerian Market

BAUCHI, Nigeria — Two teenage female suicide bombers blew themselves up Tuesday in a crowded market in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing at least 30 people, according to witnesses and a security official.

Boko Haram, Nigeria’s Islamic extremist rebels, are suspected of the bombings, as they have carried out many similar attacks. The bombings highlight Nigeria’s ongoing insecurity in which 1,500 people have been killed by the militant’s insurgency this year, according to Amnesty International.

The two girls dressed in full hijabs entered the busy marketplace and detonated their explosives, said Abba Aji Kalli, the Borno state co-ordinator of the Civilian Joint Task Force.

The first set off her explosives and killed about three women, said Kalli.

When others gathered around the scene, the second bomber screamed and blew herself up, killing about 30, he said.

So, were these teenage girls such passionate Muslims as to sacrifice themselves voluntarily? Or, were the two girls captured by Boko Haram from Chibok or elsewhere, who were forced to blow themselves up because their friends or families were threatened if they didn't? In either case, militant Islam is insanely evil.

“I am right here at the scene and I have before me 11 corpses … many have been taken away by relatives, while others are taken to the state specialists’ hospital,” said Kalli.

Soldiers and police officers cordoned off the area while rescue workers helped survivors to the hospital. Nigeria’s police have not yet issued a statement on Tuesday’s blasts.

Reaction in Maiduguri to bombings

Today’s blast is the first in Maiduguri since July 2 when 56 people were killed in the same market area when a car bomb hit a group of traders and shoppers.

Maiduguri is the provincial capital and largest city in Borno state, one of the three states in northeastern Nigeria that are under a state of emergency because of the extremist violence.

In April Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok, about 125 kilometres southwest of Maiduguri. The schoolgirls are still missing and their plight has aroused international concern and prompted the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign.

Last month, on Oct. 17, the parents were encouraged when the Nigerian military announced a cease-fire with Boko Haram and said negotiations had begun for the release of the schoolgirls.

Those hopes were quickly dashed, however, when Boko Haram fighters continued attacks and seized several cities and towns across the northeast. In a video statement, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau denied the ceasefire and scoffed at claims of negotiations to release the schoolgirls.

Boko Haram still holds many centres in an area covering an estimated 20,000 square kilometres and has declared the area to be an Islamic caliphate where they are imposing their strict version of Shariah law. The insurgents want to impose Islamic rule over all Nigeria, Africa’s most populous state with its 170 million people about evenly divided between Christians and Muslims.

Nigeria Journalist Puts Faces to Girls Kidnapped by Boko Haram

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As a Nigerian growing up in the United States, Chika Oduah was always fascinated by her homeland and frustrated by the global indifference to the appalling treatment of women in many parts of West Africa.

Born in Nigeria but raised from the age of two in privileged circumstances in Atlanta, Georgia, Oduah could not wait to return to Africa and became a journalist so that she could find a way to highlight and advance women's rights there.

Chika Oduah - Nigerian/American journalist

When some 270 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by Islamist rebels in April this year, Oduah, 28, was outraged by the initial lack of interest, so she drove for three days to the youngsters' village of Chibok to talk to their families.

Oduah was determined to put faces to the girls to make the world pay attention and to highlight their families' desperate efforts to find them.

The journey itself to Chibok, about 770 km (480 miles) northeast of the capital Abuja, was treacherous, on pot-holed and earth roads where Boko Haram militants were known to have kidnapped motorists.

But what she found at Chibok was heartbreaking - the girls' deserted bedrooms still full of their clothes and school books and their families in mourning for their lost children.

"I wanted to see what the girls were like ... if they had boyfriends, dreams," said Oduah, in London on Tuesday to receive the 2014 Trust Women Journalist Award, which recognises a journalist whose work has raised awareness of women's rights.

"Their poor families were trying so hard to cooperate with government institutions to find their girls, but nothing was really happening. They were trying to be positive but it was horrendous for them."

Oduah's stories about the girls received international attention, but the fate of the 270 girls and women aged from 13 to over 20 who were kidnapped by gunmen from their secondary school near the Cameroon border remains largely unknown, seven months later.

More than 50 have managed to escape but at least 200 remain in captivity, as do scores of girls kidnapped previously.

Oduah said it was important for the missing girls - and for other women's rights issues in Africa - to put a human face to the victims to get international attention.

"I tried to dignify the villagers involved. They all have lives, jobs, families, they are not just foreigners and Africans," she said.

"For too long African women have been treated as another race and one people can ignore. I want to report from the heart and really highlight these human stories."

Educated in the United States at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago, Oduah is now based in Abuja after working at NBC and Al Jazeera, and reports on a range of subjects that highlight crucial issues facing women in West Africa.

These include female genital mutilation, forced marriage, domestic violence, the plight of albino women and food security.

Oduah is the first to agree that in Africa cultural change, particularly among women, is crucial if these problems are ever to be addressed effectively.

"Going back to Africa I had expected that all women would stand up for women's rights, but in reality in many cases it is the women who are practising and continuing the oppression of other women," she said.

"There is just such a long way to go in Africa for women." Indeed! And not just in Africa.

Nigeria Army 'Retakes Chibok' from Boko Haram

The Nigerian army says it has recaptured the north-eastern town of Chibok, which was seized by Boko Haram militants on Thursday.

Boko Haram fighters kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the village in April, sparking global outrage.

Chibok School where almost 300 girls were abducted in April
now back under Nigerian control as Boko haram routed

The group, which says it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria, has repeatedly targeted villages in Borno state in recent months.

There are reports of many Boko Haram members being killed in Sunday's raid.

Correspondents say Chibok was retaken late on Saturday, after dozens of military vehicles were seen heading to the village.

This was a joint operation by Nigerian soldiers with a large number of members of a local vigilante force. The success of the mission offers some hope of further success against the insurgents who have been seizing towns and villages in north-east Nigeria, often with little resistance.

The vigilantes would have been desperate to flush the jihadists out of the town and may have felt they had very little to lose by taking them on. A decision was clearly taken to retake Chibok as fast as possible. It is geographically no more significant than other towns and villages still in the hands of the jihadists but its name resonates around the world due to the tragedy of the 219 abducted school girls and so it was important for the government and military to win this battle.

Larger towns like Gwoza have been held by Boko Haram since August and it is surprising that there has not been more urgency to dislodge them from there. There has been a depressing diet of news from the north-east but the recapture of Chibok is a rare piece of good news from an area in crisis.

I can't help but wonder who initiated the attack - the vigilantes or the Nigerian military. If the vigilantes, then the army would have had to join in or risk extreme embarrassment. The outcome shows that the military, supplemented with vigilantes are capable of re-taking other towns from Boko Haram. Why don't they?

Is this all still an exercise in distracting Nigerians from thinking about that $6 billion in oil revenue that disappeared early this year?

"Troops continue pursuit of fleeing terrorists and arrest of the wounded. Normalcy is restored," Nigeria's army said on its official Twitter feed. Normalcy, except most of the people have fled and won't return because they cannot trust the military to protect them.

The military has clearly made it a priority to recapture Chibok, which was held by the insurgents for 48 hours, the BBC's Will Ross reports from Lagos.

However, many residents say the jihadists still have a presence in the surrounding villages and so the area is not safe, our correspondent adds.

Many Chibok residents have moved to other parts of the country, fearing more attacks.

Last month, the group dismissed the government's claims to have agreed a ceasefire. The government had said the ceasefire would set the stage for the release of the Chibok schoolgirls.

Christian Town of Chibok, Nigeria, Now Part of Islam

Boko Haram militants have seized the north-eastern Nigerian town of Chibok, the home of more than 200 schoolgirls the insurgents kidnapped in April, residents who fled have told the BBC.

The school in Chibok from where almost 300 girls were abducted in April

Militants attacked and took control of the town, in Borno state, on Thursday evening, residents said.

The militants have repeatedly targeted villages around Chibok over recent months.

Boko Haram says it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria.

A senator for Borno state, Ali Ndume, told the BBC Hausa service that security forces posted in the town ran away when the insurgents attacked. 

That's normal procedure for most Boko Haram attacks. Why can't adequate resources be assigned to protect these towns? One begins to suspect collusion between the military, the government, and Boko Haram; or, at the very least, complete indifference. In either case, major reforms are necessary in both Nigeria's military and government, but corruption is so all-pervasive it would require a major act of God to turn things around.

Residents told the Sahara Reporters news website that the militants headed to the centre of Chibok and declared that they were taking it over as part of their caliphate.

Abubakar Shekau - leader of Boko Haram

Changed tactics

Since the kidnapping people have complained that the area was not well protected and many residents of Chibok had already moved to safer parts of the country, fearing another attack.

The BBC's Will Ross reports from Nigeria that the military has repeatedly failed to defend towns and villages in the north-east, allowing Boko Haram to steadily expand the area they control.

The crisis in Nigeria is deepening every week, but politicians appear more focused on next year's elections, our correspondent says.

Boko Haram has changed tactics in recent months by holding on to territory rather than using hit-and-run attacks that have left thousands dead.

Last month, the group dismissed the government's claims to have agreed a ceasefire. The government had said the ceasefire would set the stage for the release of the Chibok schoolgirls.

Chibok is a relatively small, mainly Christian town.

Its seizure comes a day after a government helicopter came down in Yola, in north-east Adamawa State - the second military helicopter to go down in the area in a week.

Also on Thursday, officials and residents said the army had managed to recapture the town of Mubi, which was the biggest town under Boko Haram's control.

48 Nigerian Students Killed 79 Wounded by Suicide Bomber

A suicide bomber disguised in a school uniform detonated explosives at a high school assembly in the northeastern Nigerian city of Potiskum on Monday, killing at least 48 students, according to survivors and a morgue attendant.

People inspect the damaged roof of the Government Science Technical College
in Potiskum, Nigeria on Monday after a suicide bomber set off an explosion
during a student assembly. 

Soldiers rushed to the scene, grisly with body parts, in the capital of Yobe state, but they were chased away by a crowd throwing stones and shouting that they are angry at the military's inability to halt a 5-year-old Islamic insurgency that has killed thousands and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.

A suicide bomb attack in the same city killed 30 people one week ago, when suspected Boko Haram fighters attacked a religious procession of moderate Muslims.

Some 2,000 students had gathered for Monday morning's weekly assembly at the Government Technical Science College when the explosion blasted through the school hall, according to survivors.

"We were waiting for the principal to address us, around 7:30 a.m., when we heard a deafening sound and I was blown off my feet, people started screaming and running, I saw blood all over my body," 17-year-old student Musa Ibrahim Yahaya said from the general hospital, where he was being treated for head wounds.

Hospital records show 79 students were admitted and health workers said they include serious injuries that may require amputations. The hospital was so overcrowded that some patients were squashed two to a bed.

A morgue attendant said 48 bodies were brought to the hospital and all appeared to be between the ages of 11 and 20 years old. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give information to reporters.

Lack of security blamed

Survivors said the bomber appeared to have hidden the explosives in a type of rucksack popular with students. Months ago Nigeria's military had reported finding a bomb factory where explosives were being sewn into rucksacks in the northern city of Kano.

Garba Alhaji, father of one of the wounded students, said the school did not have proper security. "I strongly blame the Yobe state government for not fencing the college," he said, adding that just three months ago a bomb was discovered in the school and removed by an anti-bomb squad.

The federal government of President Goodluck Jonathan, who is running for re-election in February, also had promised more security for schools in the northeast. Nigeria needs to say good-bye to Goodluck. He has consistently failed and embarrassed his country, and, were the consequences not so bloody, would have become a laughing stock.

Nigeria Violence

Boko Haram — the name means "Education is sinful" in the local Hausa language — attracted international outrage with the April kidnappings of 276 mostly Christian schoolgirls writing exams at a northeastern boarding school. Dozens escaped on their own but 219 remain missing. Boko Haram has said that the schoolgirls have all converted to Islam and been married off to extremist fighters.

Many Nigerians are angry that Boko Haram has increased attacks and bombings since Oct. 17 when the government claimed to have brokered a cease-fire. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has denied negotiating a truce.

Families Shocked as All Hope of Rescuing the Chibok Girls is Killed

Boko Haram said more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls have been married off.

With a malevolent laugh, the leader of Nigeria's Islamic extremists tells the world that more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls have all been converted to Islam and married off, dashing hopes for their freedom. 

Abubakar Shekau Head of Boko Haram
revels in his role of butchering and terrorizing people

"If you knew the state your daughters are in today, it might lead some of you ... to die from grief," Abubakar Shekau sneers, addressing the parents of the girls and young women kidnapped from a remote boarding school more than six months ago.

In a new video released late Friday night, the Boko Haram leader also denies there is a cease-fire with the Nigerian government and threatens to kill an unidentified German hostage. "Don't you know we are still holding your German hostage (who is) always crying," he taunts. "If we want, we will hack him or slaughter him or shoot him."

"You people should understand that we only obey Allah, we tread the path of the Prophet. We hope to die on this path (we hope so too, soon)... Our goal is the garden of eternal bliss," he says. You've got such a surprise coming. Your father, the Devil has deceived you into thinking you are working for God, but you are not, you are working for Satan and you will be rewarded with Satan's reward.

He said Boko Haram is interested only in "battle, hitting, striking and killing with the gun, which we look forward to like a tasty meal," he said.

"The issue of the girls is long forgotten because I have long ago married them off," Shekau says with a chortle. Unfortunately, it is likely that Shekau couldn't return all the girls if he wanted to. There is a very good likelihood that some are dead, either from refusing to convert, trying to escape, being uncooperative, or disease. More are likely to die in childbirth early next year as they give birth in the forest. 

Anyone who doesn't believe that evil exists as an entity needs to revisit that concept.

Families of the 219 schoolgirls held for more than six months by Boko Haram militants said they were shocked but not surprised at fresh claims that the teenagers had been married off.

The head of the Chibok Elders Forum in the northeast Nigerian town, Pogo Bitrus, told AFP: "It (the claim about marriage) is shocking to us, although we know that Boko Haram is not a reliable group.

"We were skeptical about the talks to release our girls and we never took the ceasefire seriously because since the announcement, they have never stopped attacking communities.

"Therefore the information that our girls have been married off is not surprising to us," said Bitrus, whose four nieces are among the hostages.

"We are only hoping the government will step up whatever efforts it is making to quell the insurgency." That's not asking for much. Doing anything would be a step up. However, as it stands, there is virtually no hope of the girls returning any time soon. Perhaps we should be shifting focus to include the other 300 to 800 girls abducted by Boko Haram.

We should also be working very hard to remove the entire government and most of the military leaders. Perhaps it's time for people to demand that political, military, business leaders, and the media tell the truth with serious consequences for lying. 

Perhaps it's time for the people to demand that UN auditors investigate where Nigeria's oil money disappears to.  If even a small portion of that money had been invested in the northeast, Boko Haram would never have come into existence.

Protestors march by shouting slogans under the ''Bring back our girls''
campaign for the missing Nigerian schoolgirls.

Shekau indicated in earlier video messages that the girls would be sold as slave brides and that some, but not all, had converted to Islam.

His latest claim that they were now all Muslims and had been "married off" chimes with testimony from former hostages that forced conversion and marriage are commonplace in Boko Haram camps.

Human Rights Watch said in a report published this week that upwards of 500 women and girls have been kidnapped since 2009, although some estimates put the figure at more than 1,000.

Enoch Mark, a Christian pastor in Chibok whose daughter and niece are among the hostages, said the girls' families were "lost for words".

"Since they were kidnapped we have no certainty about the situation they are in. We keep getting conflicting information," he added.

They were "ironically lucky" that world attention has focused on the Chibok girls, he added, but said their situation was part of a wider issue.

"Only God knows the number of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram," he said.

"We only keep hoping that they will be returned to us and if they are not we take solace in God."

Boko Haram Denies Ceasefire Claim by Nigeria's Ridiculous Government

If there was ever any real hope of getting the Chibok girls back any time soon, it's been blown out the window. They will not be negotiated back. Unless Boko Haram is completely destroyed, it is unlikely that they will come back in the next decade or two.

The video released on Friday was Boko Haram's first
statement after the government announced a ceasefire

Boko Haram has denied claims by Nigeria's government that it has agreed to a ceasefire and will release more than 200 abducted schoolgirls.

The group's leader, Abubakar Shekau, said the girls had converted to Islam and been married off since being taken.

Nigeria's army announced a ceasefire with the militants on 17 October, saying the girls would soon be freed.

But violence has continued since news of the alleged truce, including a fatal bomb blast on Friday.

Boko Haram has been fighting an insurgency since 2009, with some 2,000 civilians reportedly killed this year.

'We will not negotiate'
In a video released on Friday, Abubakar Shekau said: "We have not made ceasefire with anyone. We did not negotiate with anyone. It's a lie.

"We will not negotiate. What is our business with negotiation? Allah said we should not."

Shekau also claimed that the militants were holding a German national, thought to be a teacher, who was kidnapped by gunmen in July.

There was no indication of when or where the group's latest video was shot.

The BBC's Tomi Oladipo in Lagos says the video will come as a huge embarrassment for the Nigerian government after it said it had secured a ceasefire with Boko Haram. Not really, Tomi, very few people expect the truth from the Nigerian military, government or newpapers.

Newspapers with headlines on the Chibok girls and their possible
release are displayed at a news stand in Abuja - 18 October 2014

Nigerian newspapers will print whatever you want them to print, if you pay them.

The Islamist militants sparked global outrage in April by abducting 219 schoolgirls from the remote north-eastern town of Chibok, in Borno state.

Their continued captivity has led to criticism of the Nigerian government's efforts to secure their release. 'Efforts' is much too strong a word to be applied here.

Hopes were raised earlier this month when Nigeria's chief of defence staff, Alex Badeh, announced a truce with the group.

"They've assured us they have the girls and they will release them," he said. "I am cautiously optimistic."

But the Boko Haram leader said the girls were "in their marital homes" after being married off by the group.

Last week, Human Rights Watch said in a report that Boko Haram was holding more than 500 women and young girls captive and that forced marriage was common in the group's camps.

What Kind of Nigeria Will the Chibok Girls Come Back To?

Hopes of release faded into weary cynicism this week. It’s a feeling Nigerians have grown used to. 

I have been cynical from the beginning of this 'deal' with Boko Haram. There was very little chance of it being true and coming to pass. There was a very strong probability that it was simply untrue, like so many other stories that came from the Nigerian military or government or media. 

The lies they tell, the games they play, spark hope that invariably is yanked away within days. It's criminal what they are doing to the families and friends of the kidnapped children, and they're continued neglect of the hundreds of girls and boys captured by Boko Haram. It's also criminal that their military is so pathetic and so poorly equipped that they cannot even protect the people they are supposed to. Some people should be held accountable.

Protesters call on the Nigerian government to rescue
the girls taken by Boko Haram from a school in Chibok.

The news that the Nigerian government and Boko Haram had reached a deal that would secure the release of the Chibok girls was received with excitement all over the world. I landed in Nigeria the day the news broke, and my phone was flooded with texts and messages to the effect of “Have you heard?”. Then, as the days passed and the girls did not materialise, anticipation cooled into watchfulness and watchfulness soured into cynicism. “They’re always releasing false statements,” a relative of mine said the other day. “Just let us know when they get home.”

The Chibok girls have become a symbol of everything that is wrong with Nigeria. They were abducted because the state failed to protect them. They have remained in captivity, first because their disappearance was not treated as an issue of national significance and then because despite pouring billions of dollars into defence, the army tasked with finding them is worse equipped than Boko Haram. Almost the entire population of this country can give instances where state neglect or state greed or state indifference has led to calamity in our lives.

I wonder how many Nigerians have off-shore bank accounts with millions of dollars in them? I would bet the number would be in the hundreds and possibly in the thousands as multiple billions of dollars go missing from military and government coffers. It would seem that being a liar and a thief is a prerequisite for advancement in the military and government of Nigeria.

The Chibok girls are our plights magnified – a twist of fate, and we could easily be them tomorrow. Their loss was our nadir (rock-bottom) as a nation and their recovery would mark, for many, a return to cautious optimism. Until you have a leader with some integrity, there'l be no reason for optimism, cautious or otherwise.

For others it would take much more than that. Bringing the Chibok girls back will not solve the problem of the thousands who have been displaced by Boko Haram and are now living as refugees in northern cities like Yola. Bringing the Chibok girls back will not change the fact that 12 Nigerian soldiers were sentenced to death for mutinying against their commander, and more are mutinying because they are so poorly equipped.

On Wednesday the town of Mubi, home to Adamawa State University, was overrun by Boko Haram insurgents and Nigerian soldiers fled, leaving its barracks to be looted of weapons. Some two weeks after the announcement of the deal, newspapers continue to keep track of how many days the girls have been missing – but the main headlines have now moved on to more recent atrocities.

The western fixation on the Chibok girls is seen by some as a simplification of a war that has many victims: young boys, young girls, old men, women, children, Christians, Muslims, pastors, imams, soldiers, teachers, students, journalists, a list of casualties that has no rhyme or reason.

Conspiracy theories thus abound in some quarters, as people express scepticism about the wave of international concern over Chibok. The concern from western governments, some believe, is just a ploy to get a foothold in Nigeria. “After all, Boko Haram has been killing and kidnapping us since,” a friend summarised.

The concern from western governments was not about getting a foothold in Nigeria; it was simply an exercise in appeasing their own constituents. I believe they mostly left because of the impossibility of working with the Nigerian military and government. It is probably for the same reason that the west has little interest in your oil.

And for others, as well as bringing back the Chibok girls and equipping our army, how we win the wider war against terrorism is just as important.

In 2013, the US state department filed a report on human rights abuses in Nigeria. Ignoring the irony of the US filing a report on abuses that occur as a result of a war on terror, the facts presented were appalling. Extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, beatings – these have sadly become part and parcel of Nigeria’s response to Boko Haram. Innocent Nigerians are becoming collateral damage for our war on terror.

Things have so deteriorated that the US government has allegedly refused to sell arms to Nigeria because of human rights violations. Again, ignoring cries of the pot calling the kettle black, the more pertinent question is: is the kettle black? Are these allegations true? If they are, this is not how a democracy fights a war, particularly on its own territory.

In Nigeria this month, I witnessed incidents which suggest that in many ways my country is still only a nominal democracy. Waiting in traffic in Port Harcourt, in the south-east of the country, I saw a police officer run up to a traffic offender and deal him a vicious blow across the face. Bystanders did not even look up. Again in Port Harcourt, I saw a convoy with sirens blaring driving down the wrong side of the road to avoid waiting like the rest of us normal, plebeian people. And last, and most shocking, outside Lagos airport, I watched a soldier ram the nozzle of his gun, hand on trigger, into the shoulder of a driver who had formed a second lane at the drop-off point at the departure terminal.

My South African friends, very conscious of the apartheid struggle, are always quick to say, “Biko did not die for this”, or “Mandela did not go to prison for that”, whenever there has been a perceived infringement of their democratic rights. In Nigeria, we too have our democratic heroes. They were not tear-gassed, thrown in prison or killed so that 15 years later, 234 girls would go missing and no one would care.

Kudirat Abiola was not shot in the head so that I would watch a policeman almost shoot a driver for parking wrongly outside Murtala Muhammed international airport. The journalist Dele Giwa was not blown up so that, in 2014, the billions of dollars earmarked to fight a war on terror against a group much smaller and with fewer resources than the Nigerian army would unaccountably not suffice, and an additional $1bn would be needed to do the job.

Chibundu Onuzo
The Guardian

I have said before, yes please, bring back our girls – but what kind of nation will they come back to? At the Port Harcourt Book Fair last week I watched a troupe of young Nigerians act out the plight of my country. Nigeria, in ragged green and white robes, lay stricken on the floor. The actors surrounded the sick nation, listing the wrongs that had brought Nigeria to this state. So young, and these actors already knew about state corruption and state brutality and state neglect.


And yet the play did not end in despair. These young ones grew and became great, and lifted Nigeria to her feet and discarded her rags and clothed her in sparkling green and white, and danced and danced and danced with the Nigeria they had recreated. Let’s bring back our girls to a country where they can become and blossom and grow to join in the work of lifting Nigeria to her feet and making her dance again.

I hope and pray this will happen, but it can't happen until the country's leadership is held accountable for lying and stealing and indifference to the sufferings of its own people. How that might happen, I cannot even imagine.