NIGERIA-VIOLENCE/GIRLS PRAYERS Special prayers in Abuja for missing school girls on anniversary of their abduction by Boko Haram

Record ID: 160039

  • Title: NIGERIA-VIOLENCE/GIRLS PRAYERS Special prayers in Abuja for missing school girls on anniversary of their abduction by Boko Haram
  • Date: 12th April 2015
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) COORDINATOR, CHILDREN CHURCH, 12 APOSTLES CATHEDRAL OF THE CATHOLIC ARCH DIOCESE OF ABUJA, JOSEPHINE MADAKI, SAYING: "Definitely they will come back. As a parent you can't give up that they won't come back, we know that they will come back. God on our side, God as a Nigerian they will come back. We trust God."
  • Embargoed: 27th April 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5K9VNXUK75UC2QKRDW3IU8H0L
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A special service was held in the Nigerian capital Abuja's catholic church of the 12 apostles on Sunday (April 11) to pray for 200 school girls, most of them christian, still held by Boko Haram Muslim militants three days ahead of the one year anniversary of their abduction.
    The girls were kidnapped from their school on April 14, 2014.
    Boko Haram whose name roughly translates as "western education is sinful" has killed thousands and displaced some 1.5 million people during a six year campaign to carve out an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.
    Isaiah Patrick-Okpe is a visiting reverend father to the 12 Apostles Catholic church. He says he has not given up hope that they will be returned to their homes and parents.
    "Its up to a year since these girls were abducted and we've been praying for the safe return of these girls and there have been so many people out there also praying and crying for the safe return of this children of ours, sisters of ours and friends of ours. So we've not failed in our efforts in terms of prayer to ensure that these children return safely," he said.
    Josephine Madaki heads the children department of the church and said she would not give up on the girls either.
    "Definitely they will come back. As a parent you can't give up that they won't come back, we know that they will come back. God on our side, God as a Nigerian they will come back. We trust God," she says.
    In November last year, a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said the kidnapped girls had been "married off" to its fighters.
    At the same time, the Nigerian government was claiming the girls would soon be freed.
    Moreover Nigeria's military had said it had killed Shekau and authorities said in September that they had killed an impostor posing as him in videos.
    In the video, the man's face was difficult to discern and Reuters could not independently verify the video which was handed to journalists through the same channels that Boko Haram has used to distribute video tapes for the past three years, in what has become the militant group's sole mean of communicating messages through the media.
    The five-year-old campaign for an Islamic state by Boko Haram has become by far the biggest menace to the security of Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer.
    The fighters have also made several incursions, bloody attacks and abductions into neighbouring countries.
    Nigeria's government appealed for international help in combating the insurgency after Boko Haram last March pledged allegiance to Islamic State, the violent jihadi organization that rules a self-declared caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.
    The military alliance fighting Boko Haram includes troops from West African countries Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin.
    In his first speech since he was elected president last month, Former Nigerian Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, who is due to take office at the end of May, said he would spare no effort to defeat Boko Haram.
    Buhari, himself a Muslim from the north, branded exiting President Goodluck Jonathan's reliance on Chad to suppress the insurgency before the election as a national disgrace. He has promised to restore the territorial integrity of Africa's most populous nation.
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