ABUJA: Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan promised yesterday that more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist militants would soon return home, teenage Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai said after meeting him.
Malala, who became a global celebrity after surviving being shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education, was visiting Nigeria to support an international campaign for the release of the teenage students abducted in mid-April by the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.
“The president promised me ... that the abducted girls will return to their homes soon,” Malala, who has called the 219 missing students her “sisters”, told a news conference after a 45-minute meeting with Jonathan at the presidential villa.
The Pakistani teenager, who turned 17 on Saturday, also appealed directly to Boko Haram to stop its attacks and release the schoolgirl captives, saying Islam was a “religion of peace” that allowed education for girls as well as boys. “Release your sisters. Release my sisters and release the daughters of this nation. Let them be free,” she said at an event in Abuja to mark UN-declared “Malala Day”, established in her name to promote the education of girls and women.
At the weekend, Malala met parents of the schoolgirls snatched on April 14 from the northeastern village of Chibok by Boko Haram militants fighting to establish an Islamic state in religiously mixed Nigeria. The Nigerian girls’ plight triggered an international #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign supported by Michelle Obama and Angelina Jolie.
This has drawn attention to the war in Nigeria’s northeast, where Boko Haram, which is inspired by the Taliban and whose name means “Western education is sinful”, has killed thousands and abducted hundreds since launching an uprising in 2009.
With the girls still missing three months after their kidnap, Jonathan faces criticism at home and abroad over the deteriorating security situation in Africa’s leading oil producer and biggest economy. Nigeria is receiving intelligence and surveillance assistance from the United States, Britain, France, Israel and other allies but has so far shown little progress in getting the Chibok girls back or in halting almost daily militant raids.
Reuters
