Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai on
Monday criticised Nigerian
and world
leaders for not doing enough to help free
219 schoolgirls kidnapped a year ago by
Boko Haram militants. “In my opinion,
Nigerian leaders and the international
community have not done enough to help
you,” she said in a letter to the teenagers,
on the eve of the first anniversary of their
abduction.
“They must do much more to help secure
your release. I am among many people
pressuring them to make sure you are
freed,” she added, calling the girls “my
brave sisters”. Yousafzai’s letter, which
she said was “a message of solidarity love
and hope”, comes as events, including
marches, prayers and vigils, were being
held to mark the girls’ 12 months in
captivity.
Islamist fighters kidnapped 276 girls from
their school in the remote town of Chibok,
in Borno state, northeastern Nigeria, on the
evening of April 14 last year. Fifty-seven
managed to escape soon afterwards but
the remainder have not been seen since an
appearance in a Boko Haram video in May
last year. Boko Haram leader Abubakar
Shekau has claimed they have all
converted to Islam and been “married off”.
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan and
his government were heavily criticised for
their response to the kidnapping but
Malala said there were now “reasons for
hope and optimism”. “Nigerian forces are
re-gaining territory and protecting more
schools,” she wrote. “Nigeria’s newly
elected president, Muhammadu Buhari, has
vowed to make securing your freedom a
top priority and promised his government
will not tolerate violence against women
and girls.”
Malala, 17, also wrote of her own
experiences at the hands of militants in her
native Pakistan. She was nearly killed by
the Taliban in October 2012 for insisting
that girls had a right to an education. She
recovered and became a global champion
of girls’ rights to go to school. A fund set
up in her name would ensure the girls will
continue their education after their release,
she said, urging them not to give up hope.
“I look forward to the day I can hug each
one of you, pray with you and celebrate
your freedom with your families. Until then,
stay strong and never lose hope. You are
my heroes,” she added. The United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on
Monday said that 800,000 of the 1.5 million
people displaced by Boko Haram’s
insurgency were children.
More than 300 schools have been severely
damaged or destroyed between January
2012 and December last year, with at least
196 teachers and 314 schoolchildren killed
in that period, it added. Children have
increasingly become targets for
kidnapping, sexual abuse and forced
marriage as well as “weapons of war”,
being made to fight alongside militants or
used as human bombs, UNICEF said.
