7 Years After, 112 Chibok Girls Still Unaccounted For- BBOG

The Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG), a movement campaigning for the release of the abducted Chibok Secondary Schoolgirls who have spent seven years with Boko Haram terrorists, says the parents, relations, and supporters of the girls still remain disturbed, disconnected, and distressed while they are unaccounted for.

“As we approach the dreadful seventh anniversary of the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, our hearts remain broken,” BBOG said in a statement obtained by HumAngle on Tuesday, April 13.

Seven years after they were abducted in what attracted global condemnation, 112 out of the 276 abducted Chibok Girls remain in Boko Haram den with their abductors and the world seems to have moved on.

On the night of April 14 2014, 276 mostly-Christian female students were kidnapped from the Secondary School by Boko Haram in Chibok town, Borno State, Northeast Nigeria.

In the statement, the group disclosed it was launching a renewed global campaign “Until all are free” to reflect its seven demands which include the release of the girls without further delay.

It is also demanding a comprehensive report on the status of all investigations, operations, and missions to bring back the remaining 112 Chibok girls, including the release of the General Ibrahim Sabo Report. 

The group also demanded the provision of psycho-social support for traumatised Chibok girls and other affected families, and immediately re-open a properly resourced and staffed Chibok Desk at the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to keep parents informed, and to provide support to families of abducted children.

The BBOG wants the completion and reopening of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, which the administration of former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan pledged N500 million to rebuild with full state-of-the-art facilities. 

BBOG lamented that till date, the school remains closed and uncompleted. 

The BBOG movement further requested reports on the whereabouts of Halima Ali, a captive Chibok girl who was recently able to speak to her father and other family members on the phone and who was allegedly in the hands of the  Nigerian authorities but has not been heard from again.

On the recurrent attacks on schools by terrorists, BBOG asked the Nigerian government to provide trained security personnel for schools, along with emergency staff response training, just as it demanded “accountability for the status and progress of the Safe Schools Initiative.”

BBOG further called on the Nigerian Government to provide an update on the funding and status of the Missing Persons Register programme at the National Human Rights Commission and how the Victim Support Fund has been used to support victims of the insurgency in the Northeast, including the families of the Chibok Girls, their community and other conflict-affected communities and the education of children with no access to local schools.

Reminding President Muhammad Buhari of his promise at his inauguration in 2015 to overrun terrorism and terrorists in the country, the BBOG said Nigeria cannot claim to have defeated the terror group, Boko Haram “without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents.”

The group says it would continue to seek international support and call upon international bodies and governments to ensure that the Nigerian government keeps its promise to “Bring Back Our Girls.”

“We are tired, we are weary, we are heartbroken, but we are not deterred. We will never give up fighting for our girls until they are all free.”