- Title: NIGERIA: Protesters urge Nigeria to step up hunt for girls abducted by Islamists
- Date: 30th April 2014
- Summary: ABUJA, NIGERIA (APRIL 30, 2014) (REUTERS) WOMEN AND MEN CHANTING AND MARCHING PAST VARIOUS OF WOMEN SINGING/CARRYING PLACARDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) RETIRED CIVIL SERVANT HALITA ALIYU, SAYING: "I personally believe that not enough is being done to rescue our daughters. Please recollect like two, three months ago, 25 girls were abducted from Konduga because the nation has not risen in unison to do something about those 25 girls abducted in Konduga, it is now possible to abduct another two hundred plus, next time maybe it will be more. Each and every one of us needs to do something to arrest this unpleasant development, you know that are happening in the country especially in the northeast." VARIOUS OF WOMEN CRYING (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER NIGERIAN EDUCATION MINISTER OBY EZEKWESILI, SAYING: "We are so frustrated at the fact that 234 children could get missing and there is actually no coherent explanation as to exactly the search and rescue operation that is going on concerning them." VARIOUS OF POLICE PATROL VEHICLES MOVING WITH THE CROWD OF PROTESTERS
- Embargoed: 15th May 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Nigeria
- Country: Nigeria
- Reuters ID: LVA3TA6A6RRM1P6K5EZBQU1H6EUO
- Story Text: Dozens of protesters gathered outside Nigeria's parliament on Wednesday (April 30) called on security forces to search harder for 200 schoolgirls abducted by Islamist militants in the war-ravaged northeast over two weeks ago.
Scores of suspected Boko Haram gunmen stormed an all-girls secondary school in the village of Chibok, in Borno state, on April 14, packing the teenagers onto trucks and disappearing into a remote, hilly area along the Cameroon border.
The demonstrators, including pregnant women, relatives of the girls and civil servants, waved banners saying "Bring Back Our Girls."
"I personally believe that not enough is being done to rescue our daughters. Please recollect like two, three months ago, 25 girls were abducted from Konduga because the nation has not risen in unison to do something about those 25 girls abducted in Konduga, it is now possible to abduct another two hundred plus, next time maybe it will be more," said retired civil servant Halita Aliyu.
"We are so frustrated at the fact that 234 children could get missing and there is actually no coherent explanation as to exactly the search and rescue operation that is going on concerning them," said Nigerian education minister Oby Ezekwesili.
Boko Haram rebels have killed thousands in the past year.
The scale and brutality of the school attack shocked a nation already long used to hearing about atrocities in an increasingly bloody, five-year-old Islamist insurgency.
The abduction has also become a symbol of the military's impotence in protecting civilians against Islamist insurgents whose attacks appear to be getting less discriminating.
President Goodluck Jonathan has said security forces are doing all they can to find the girls, aged between 15 and 18.
The demonstrators began their march outside the Hilton Abuja, one of Africa's most expensive hotels, where in a week's time Nigeria will be hosting the World Economic Forum (WEF) under tight security, to be maintained by 6,000 soldiers. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
