Save lives of abducted Nigerian girls

Augustina Tawiah Junior News May - 21 - 2014 , 13:59 4 minutes read

One of the Nigerian schoolgirls who escaped from the grip of Boko Haram says she is still afraid about what happened that day, April 14, 2014.

Prior to the abduction of the schoolgirls at Chibok last month, the people in the village had begun to receive cell phone calls that the feared, Boko Haram, the group which is known to take extreme measures, was on its way.

No one knew what the attack would entail, that it would mean that hundreds of schoolgirls would be plucked from their beds by the group which would later threaten to sell them.

"It was like they were coming for a shopping trip," one person from the village who witnessed the attack that day told CNN.

The people in the village said they passed along warnings to local police that the terrorists were on their way that night. They said they received phone calls from family and friends from surrounding villages and were told that there was a convoy of cargo trucks, pickups and motorcycles heading their way.

One of them said he was told, "They are coming for you. Run!"

They said police called for reinforcements, but none came. Everyone, including the police, fled into the bush during the attack. But the girls were asleep in their dorms.

The stories appear to confirm an Amnesty International report that the government couldn't put together enough troops to ward off the attack.

Abducted girl shares her experience

Some lucky girls managed to escape that night when, after they were loaded into cargo trucks, they made a dash for freedom.

"We would rather die than go," one of the girls told CNN. "We ran into the bush. We ran and we ran."

With fear in her eyes and voice, the young woman, who asked not to be identified, described the experience to a CNN crew that made the long, dangerous trip to her village.

She said she and two friends who had also escaped saw something on fire and headed in that direction, presuming it was a building in the village that had been set ablaze. Normally, Chibok is pitch black at night.

Officials have said the Boko Haram militants abducted about 276 girls from the boarding school on April 14 and some escaped into a forest.

The girl, who described her escape to CNN, was still shaken up by the events. When asked to describe what her kidnappers wore, she responded: "I feel afraid."

Her school has been closed, but if it were open, she says she wouldn't go back.

International efforts

US and British officials are in Abuja to help Nigeria's government look for the girls, plan rescue missions and advise on ways to subdue Boko Haram.

• China and France are also helping in the search. A statement from President Jonathan's office said Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, promised to send a team of experts who would assist to counter terrorism.

• Nigeria has said it is ready to talk to the Islamist militants to negotiate the release of the abducted girls, Cabinet Minister, Tanimu Turaki, has said.

• Mr Turaki, who is Special Duties Minister and Chairman of a committee set up by President Goodluck Jonathan to find ways of reaching an agreement with Boko Haram, said Abubakar Shekau should send people he trusts to meet the standing committee on reconciliation.

Hi-profile personalities react to the abduction

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a shooting by Taliban rebels, has said the world must not stay silent over the abduction of the girls. She told the BBC that "if we remain silent then this will spread, this will happen more and more and more".

• The Pope tweeted: "Let us all join in prayer for the immediate release of the schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria.

• Former UN Chief, Kofi Annan, also appealed for action. He criticised both the Nigerian government and other African nations for not reacting faster to the kidnapping, and called on them to use whatever was at their disposal to help free the girls.

• United Kingdom Prime Minister, David Cameron, promised that Britain "will do what we can" to help find the girls.

• Michelle Obama condemned the "unconscionable" kidnapping of the girls, saying in the weekly White House address that it was the work of "a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education.