For Nigeria’s girls
Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families. It’s time to #BringBackOurGirls. -mo pic.twitter.com/glDKDotJRt
— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 7, 2014
Nearly a month back, Islamic fundamentalist organization Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 girls from a school in Nigeria’s Chibok and is threatening to sell them.
Read more from the Deutsche Welle:
‘Western education is sinful’
Boko Haram, whose name translates to “Western education is sinful”, has been fighting an insurgency in northern Nigeria for the past five years. In a video statement obtained by news agency AFP, the leader of the Boko Haram militants Abubakar Shekau said the girls, who were kidnapped from their boarding, would be sold. “I abducted a girl at a Western education school and you are disturbed. I said Western education should end. Western education should end. Girls, you should go and get married,” Shekau said in the 57-minute video, adding that the group was holding the girls as slaves. “I will sell them in the market, by Allah,” he added.
DW’s team in Nigeria
Boko Haram is an Islamist militant group in northeastern Nigeria that is terrorising the population. It is responsible for thousands of deaths. DW’s team traveled to Nigeria to meet people who have fled the terror, to find out what the government is doing about it, what the movement wants and how it recruits members. Watch the video.
Help from Israel
France has offered to host a summit involving Nigeria, to discuss ways of thwarting the Islamist group Boko Haram. Meanwhile, Israel joined a group of nations offering help to track down girls abducted by the militants. Read more here.
Boko Haram’s main goal
Since 2009, the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram has been spreading fear and terror mostly in northeastern Nigeria. Its main goal is to enforce Islamic Shariah law throughout Nigeria.
Finding the girls
US experts have been poring over video footage to try to trace more than 200 schoolgirls that were abducted. Nigeria has rejected an offer by the Islamist group Boko Haram to return the girls in a prisoner exchange.
On Boko Haram from the web:
Who are Nigeria’s Boko Haram?
The BBC’s Q and A on Nigeria’s militant Islamist group Boko Haram – which has caused havoc in Africa’s most populous country through a wave of bombings, assassinations and now abductions – is fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state.
General information
The Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad,known by its Hausa name Boko Haram (pronounced [bōːkòː hàrâm), is a group and militant organization based in the northeast of Nigeria, north Cameroon and Niger. Read more in Wikipedia.
Boko Haram releases video
Boko Haram released a new video on Monday claiming to show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, alleging the teenagers had converted to Islam and would not be released until all militant prisoners were freed.
What you can do: join and tweet with #Bringbackourgirls on Twitter
Women carrying placards in support of the kidnapped schoolgirls protest in Lagos today #BringBackOurGirls pic.twitter.com/HcupJv7rp6
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) May 14, 2014
Are the actions of Boko Haram in accordance with Islamic Sharia? http://t.co/B94E97rGIf #BringBackOurGirls
— Tarek S. Fatah (@TarekFatah) May 14, 2014
Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families. It’s time to #BringBackOurGirls. -mo pic.twitter.com/glDKDotJRt
— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 7, 2014
Let us know your thoughts about the missing girls in Nigeria and whether what they are doing in the name of Islam is really right!
