Esther Yakubu has not seen her daughter, Dorcas, since Boko Haram kidnapped the girl with 275 classmates from the Chibok boarding school in Nigeria two years ago, but Yakubu professes faith that the Lord is with her child.
“I know that the angel of the Lord Almighty is with you, and He will continue to be with you wherever you are,” Yakubu told international PathFinders Justice Initiative for women. “Please be strong in the Lord and He will see you through. … The Lord is your strength, and I have that hope in me that I will see you again.”
With Yakubu’s daughter among the 219 girls still missing two years after the April 15, 2014, kidnapping and raid in the mostly Christian town of Chibok, a Boko Haram video has surfaced that was reportedly given to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as a “show of good faith” that the girls are alive.
“We are all well,” one of the girls on the video says, in what CNN translators described in a news report as a “scripted plea” for Nigeria to cooperate with Boko Haram in securing the girls’ release. The video only showed 15 of the missing girls but indicated the safety of “all” those missing.
Missing daughter
Yakubu told Reuters that the girls in the video were indeed Chibok students, but her daughter did not appear to be among those shown.
In a previous video released a month after the kidnapping, Boko Haram showed about 50 girls quoting the Quran while in Muslim attire and had threatened to enslave them as Muslim brides. At least one of the girls may have been killed as a forced suicide bomber, the Jubilee Campaign for religious freedom said months after the kidnapping.
On the occasion of the anniversary, Buhari told parents and activists working for the girls’ release that he believed they could still be freed. The government is working “diligently to ensure that the girls are returned home unharmed,” Buhari was quoted in This Day, a Lagos, Nigeria, newspaper.
The girls likely have been dispersed among various Boko Haram cells that are negotiating separately for the girls’ release, This Day reported April 15.
Months after Buhari claimed a “technical defeat” of Boko Haram, a regional multinational military force of 8,700 fighters from Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger continues to report successes against the jihadists.
The military has rescued thousands of Boko Haram captives, including 1,275 rescued just days before the anniversary of the Chibok kidnapping; but none of the 219 girls had been recovered. In the attack along the Nigerian Cameroon border, troops killed 22 suspected Boko Haram fighters and arrested three suspected Boko Haram commanders, a Nigerian Army spokesman said April 12 on the army’s website.
Cleared hideouts
“The unprecedented clearance operation swept through over 10 suspected Boko Haram terrorists [sic] hideouts along the border,” the statement reads.
Working to establish strict Sharia law across Nigeria, Boko Haram has been most active in northeastern Nigeria where many of the 20,000 deaths occurred that the terrorists are blamed for since 2009. Boko Haram originally targeted Christians but also has killed moderate Muslims.
Killings of Nigerian Christians increased 62 percent in the past year, according to the February report “Crushed But Not Defeated,” from the Open Doors religious freedom ministry and the Christian Association of Nigeria. Northern Nigeria Christian communities suffered more than 4,028 murders and 198 church attacks in 2015 from Boko Haram, Muslim Fulani herdsmen and others, compared to 2,484 killings and 108 church attacks in 2014, the report said.
Persistent violence
“This report shows the extent and impact of the persistent violence on the Church in northern Nigeria is much more serious than previously expected. Once Boko Haram is defeated, the problem will not be solved,” a West African Open Doors representative, whose name was not released to protect his identity, said in a press release.
Open Doors marked the two-year anniversary of the kidnapping by launching an advocacy campaign asking U.S. President Barack Obama to take a strong stance against the ongoing persecution of Christians and other victims of violence in Nigeria. Open Doors also is urging Buhari to do everything possible to protect those facing terrorism there, the press release said.
(BP)
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