- Title: Protest in Nigeria marks 1000 days since Chibok abduction
- Date: 8th January 2017
- Summary: BORNO, NIGERIA (FILE - MAY 17, 2014) (REUTERS) POLICE OFFICERS WALK ACROSS FIELD VARIOUS OF CIVILIAN JOINT SECURITY TASK FORCE AT STOP-AND-SEARCH CHECK POINT ON CHIBOK ROAD, CHECKING MEN LAGOS, NIGERIA (FILE - MAY 16, 2014) (REUTERS) PEOPLE PRAYING INSIDE MOSQUE VARIOUS OF WOMEN PRAYING INSIDE MOSQUE WOMAN PRAYING
- Embargoed: 23rd January 2017 18:57
- Keywords: Protest Nigera 1 000th day abduction school girls Boko Haram Chibok
- Location: ABUJA, BORNO, LAGOS; NIGERIA / UNKNOWN LOCATION
- City: ABUJA, BORNO, LAGOS; NIGERIA / UNKNOWN LOCATION
- Country: Nigeria
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA0045Y7ZJGN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
Campaigners from the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group protested in Nigeria's capital city, Abuja, on Sunday (January 8) to mark the 1,000th day since more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped from their secondary school in Chibok by Islamist sect, Boko Haram.
The abduction in April 2014 sparked international outrage and prompted global figures and celebrities to support the campaign to find the girls and bring them home, using the twitter hashtag #BringbackOurGirls.
A group of 21 girls were freed in October 2016 after the International Red Cross and the Swiss government brokered a deal with Boko Haram.
The Nigerian government also promised that negotiations will continue to bring home the rest of the girls, but the leader of Bring Back Our Girls, Aisha Yesufu, says there has been nothing to show that any effort is being made.
"Ten weeks ago when the 21 Chibok girls returned the Nigerian government said that based on their discussions the 83 more girls will return soon. Nothing has been said of them since that time," Yesufu said.
The Nigerian military has been carrying out a large scale offensive against Boko Haram in the Sambisa forest, a strong hold of the Islamist group.
Lone girls carrying babies have also been rescued, but a large number of the girls remain under the control of their captors.
"The fact that we still have over 90 percent of the Chibok girls that were abducted 1000 days ago, it puts to question the efficacy of these successes that we are recording," said member of the BBOG group, Bukky Shonibare.
Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year insurgency to create an Islamic state governed by a strict interpretation of sharia law in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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