Nigerians took to the streets Thursday to demand the government do
more to rescue scores of girls abducted by militants more than two weeks
ago.
Students thought kidnappers were soldiers
Many Nigerian school girls still missing
Nigeria and Boko Haram analysis
Militants seized about
230 girls in the dead of the night at a high school in the nation's far
northeast, a hotbed for Islamist group Boko Haram.
Armed men herded the
girls out of bed and forced them into trucks on April 16 in the town of
Chibok.
The convoy of trucks then disappeared into the dense forest
bordering Cameroon.
Roughly 200 girls are still missing, although the authorities and parents differ on the number.
Nigerians protest over kidnapped schoolgirls
Nigerians react to schoolgirl abductions
Survivor's tale of Nigerian violence
Nigerians have rallied
for days to criticize the government's handling of the rescue efforts.
Hundreds wept and chanted "bring back our girls" during protests in the
capital of Abuja on Wednesday. A day later, protesters gathered in
Lagos.
Shortly after the abductions last month, frustrated Chibok residents went into the forest in motorbikes to search for the girls.
During their nine-hour
trek, they never saw a single soldier in the forest where authorities
believe the militants took the girls, said Enoch Mark, whose daughter
and two nieces were among the kidnapped.
"A total of 230 parents
registered the names of their daughters who were missing on the day of
the kidnap," said Asabe Kwambura, principal of the Government Girls
Secondary School. "From my records, 43 girls have so far escaped on
their own from their kidnappers. We still have 187 girls missing."
Angry relatives
In Chibok, angry parents accused authorities of playing politics with the lives of their children.
Witnesses have seen
militants in dozens of vehicles headed to nearby Cameroon, said Ayuba
Alamson, whose two nieces were among the kidnapped.
In a statement Thursday, Nigeria's Defense Ministry said it's committed to the search.
"A lot of information
has been received in the efforts at securing the freedom of the girls.
The armed forces assures all Nigerians that it will continue to appraise
every information received during this operation accordingly," it said.
.
"While it will not
relent in its efforts in this search, the armed forces is mindful of the
fact that some of the information with which it has been inundated are
actually a ploy to distract it from its goal of dealing with terrorism
and other violent crimes aimed at crippling the nation."
Borno state Education
Commissioner Musa inuwa Kubo similarly said that the government and
military are doing whatever it takes to secure their release.
"This is a delicate
situation that requires careful handling," Kubo said. "When you have
heavily armed men holding close to 200 girls hostage, you have to be
very careful in your approach so as not to risk the safety of these
girls you want to rescue.
Students thought kidnappers were soldiers
Many Nigerian school girls still missing
Nigeria and Boko Haram analysis
He said authorities are withholding information for safety reasons.
"It is a security issue
and we just can't be divulging all the efforts we are making to get
these girls freed," the education commissioner said.
#BringBackOurGirls
But angry Nigerians said
authorities are not doing enough. They took to social media using
hashtags #BringBackOurGirls and #BringBackOurDaughters to demand more
from the government.
David Peter, a sound engineer, music producer and recording artist in Lagos, sent CNN an iReport in which he calls on the government to do more.
"If you're not safe
anywhere in the world, you should be safe in your house, in your own
back yard. We mandate the federal government to bring back our
daughters, and our children," he said.
Boko Haram's name translates to "Western education is a sin" in the local language.
The group especially
opposes the education of women. Under its version of Sharia law, women
should be at home raising children and looking after their husbands, not
at school learning to read and write.
Rights groups say the militants kidnap girls to perform chores and sexual services.
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