Parents of the 200 Chibok schoolgirls
kidnapped last April by Boko Haram members in Borno State have taken
their case to the United Nations (UN) after losing hope that the
federal government would rescue them.
A group lobbying for government action
on behalf of the parents met with UN Women, the head of the UN
representation in Nigeria and officials of the UN Office for West
Africa last month.
The group has also appealed to UNICEF, campaign spokeswoman Bukola Shonibare said.
UN officials were not immediately available for comment.
“If the government cannot take action,
we are asking for the UN to come in and help and if they reject, we just
don’t know what to do,” Reverend Enoch Mark, leader of the parents,
told Reuters. Two of his daughters were kidnapped.
It is not clear what any UN agency could do without Nigerian government approval.
More than eight months since the
abduction of the girls from Chibok, in Borno State, parents say they are
still in the dark about what the government is doing.
A presidential spokesman said efforts to free them continue, but that details of the missions are too sensitive to publish.
“The Chibok community is pained, we
cannot take this anymore,” Dauda Iliya, spokesman for the Chibok
community in Abuja, said at a New Year’s Day rally of parents, adding
that they had written to the United Nations to “protest this neglect and
nonchalance by the government.”
President Goodluck Jonathan says the government is trying to free the girls, but a botched rescue mission would endanger them.
Dozens, possibly hundreds, have been kidnapped since the Chibok attack.
Two weeks ago, gunmen abducted 172 women and children from Gumsuri, 24 kilometres from Chibok.(Nation)
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