Chibok Girls: Buhari, UN Special Envoy Meet

Nigeria’s President-elect, General Mohamadu Buhari will on Friday, May 1 meet with the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, to talk on how to seek the release of the over 200 missing Chibok school girls.

On 14 April 2014, over 200 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria. Responsibility for the kidnappings was claimed by Boko Haram, a terrorist group based in northeast part of the country.

Speaking with journalists at the UN headquarters in New York, Brown said he would talk to President-elect Buhari about how the international community could provide air and military help to He pressed further that he would also discuss with Buhari on how to offer help for safe schools which allow girls to participate in education, free of fear.

According to Brown, this is the right time to end continuous terrorist attacks which he described as “nightmares.”

The UN envoy emphasized that for a year families have not known whether their daughters are dead or alive, married off, sold off or violated as a result of their captivity.

“Now that some girls have been released we want all girls released. And we want them home with their families in days – not months or years,” he added, stressing that there was need for more secured, better prepared, safe schools to make girls and parents know everything is being done to protect them.

Brown however lamented that: “Today 10 million children don’t go to school in Nigeria. By creating safe schools and communities where girls are free of fear we can get every child into school and learning.”