‘World must do more to free Nigerian girls’
LAGOS: Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai on Monday criticised Nigerian and world leaders for not doing enough to help free 219 schoolgirls kidnapped a year ago by Boko Haram militants.
“In my opinion,
Nigerian leaders and the international community have not done enough to help you,” she said in a letter to the teenagers, on the eve of the first anniversary of their abduction.
“They must do much more to help secure your release. I am among many people pressuring them to make sure you are freed,” she added, calling the girls “my brave sisters”.
Yousafzai’s letter comes as events, including marches, prayers and vigils, were being held to mark the girls’ 12 months in captivity.
Islamist fighters kidnapped 276 girls from their school in the remote town of Chibok, in Borno state, northeastern Nigeria, on the evening of April 14 last year. Fifty-seven managed to escape soon afterwards but the remainder have not been seen since an appearance in a Boko Haram vi deo in May last year. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has claimed they have all converted to Islam and been “married off ”.
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan and his government were heavily criticised for their response to the kidnapping but Malala said there were now “reasons for hope and optimism”. “Nigerian forces are re-gaining territory and protecting more schools,” she wrote.
The letter came as a UNICEF report said an estimated 800,000 children have been forced from the homes by Boko Haram. It said the number of refugee children has doubled, making them about half of all the 1.5 million Nigerians made homeless in the uprising.