Update:
Four of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants last month have reportedly escaped their captors.
The education commissioner for Nigeria’s Borno, Musa Inuwa, told Reuters by telephone on Wednesday the four girls had been reunited with their parents.
But Mr Inuwa said 219 of the kidnapped teenagers were still missing.
Fifty-three girls escaped shortly after the initial mass abduction on 14 April, authorities in Borno state say.
Previously, Mamamia wrote:
The kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls have been found.
Yes, you read that correctly. The girls stolen from their school dormitory last month — the girls that Boko Haram’s leader boasted were “slaves” to be sold; the girls whose parents have been mourning since they were stolen by armed men in the middle of the night six weeks ago; the girls our hearts ached for as we called for world authorities to #BringBackOurGirls — have been located by the Nigerian military.
But it’s not all happy news. Because while Nigeria’s chief of defence Air Marshal Alex Badeh has announced the military has found the girls, he fears using force to try to free them could get them killed.
“(W)e know where they are, but we cannot tell you,” Badeh reportedly said at a demonstration in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, yesterday. “But where they are held, can we go there with force? We can’t kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back.”
This is a huge development in a story of international significance — not only because so many innocent lives are at stake, but because of its political implications on a global scale — given that Boko Haram has international connections to al-Qaeda.
Not to mention that the outcome of this deadlock has such far-reaching implications for the rights of girls to education and the rights of all human beings to choose their religion.
But the development is nowhere to be seen on the front pages of the mainstream newspapers. And here’s why.
Newspapers and websites generally publish what people will read — in many ways they have to in order to remain afloat — and it’s common knowledge that interest in news stories tend to fade over time.
And according to an analytics service called Google Trends, which can be used to examine how many people search for given terms over a certain period, the world lost interest in these stolen Nigerian schoolgirls two-and-a-half weeks ago.
Top Comments
I'm so sad for these innocent girls and for the people who want to rescue them but are afraid the girls will be killed doing so. The international community should do more to see these girls are saved. It's absolutely tragic what has happened to them. I'm at a loss as to how to help girls and women get the freedom, rights and feel safe in their communities the same as we have in Australia. I've cried plenty for these girls and the state of their country. We are so lucky here yet we currently have a government who is afraid of asylum seekers. It's a global problem of course but we are all human and as an international community much more has to be done.
The girls won't be brought back. For starters, they would have been dispersed very widely, so no single rescue mission can save them. Secondly, any rescue mission will result in soldiers shooting 12 year old kids with AK47s, which is exactly what Boko Haram wants for its recruiting propaganda.