Bring the girls back, please!

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

After almost one month since the incident happened, the United Nations has expressed outrage over the abduction of about 300 young girls, students of a high school in Chibok, Nigeria, by Islamist militants known as the Boko Haram.

As reported earlier, the girls were in their school when intense firing was heard in the vicinity, and as they huddled in fear, a group of men, who appeared to be soldiers, came into the premises and told them that they were there to rescue them. They asked the girls to pile into trucks that were waiting, and the youngsters obeyed, thankful to be saved from what they thought was fighting between the government troops and militants. It was only when they heard the alleged “soldiers” shouting Islamic slogans did they realize what was happening. By then it was too late, the trucks were already speeding away.

Some of the girls were later reported to have escaped, but more than 200 seemed to have disappeared. Later, their terrified parents heard that the Islamists who had taken them were planning to marry the girls to their men, and to sell the others as slaves. It was noted that the girls who were able, maybe allowed, to escape were the very young ones, and those kept were aged 14 to 17.

So far, nobody knows where the militants are hiding their victims, and Nigerian authorities seemed helpless to rescue them. It was not until the parents and the residents took matters into their own hands by adopting the poignant battlecry of “BRING BACK OUR GIRLS” that quickly got circulated through social media worldwide, did international attention focus on the case.

With the United Nations now getting into the act, and several world leaders expressing readiness to help, there is hope that the girls will be located and rescued. But time is of the essence now, something drastic must be done because, as it is, it might be too late, and some of those very young women may be facing a fate that could be worse than death.*