by Ranti Joseph
Commemoration of the kidnap of the Chibok girls has started in Nigeria and other parts of the world.
The focus of the one-year commemoration was on Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, where a vigil demanding the girls’ immediate release has been held almost every day since they were kidnapped.
In New York, the #BringBackOurGirls campaign said the Empire State Building would be lit in its colours of red and purple, to symbolise an end to violence against women.
Prayers, candlelit vigils and marches have been held or are planned but no event was planned in Chibok itself.
Chibok elder, Enoch Mark, whose daughter and niece are among the captives, said the town was still in perpetual fear of Boko Haram, despite the presence of troops.
“The last one year has been a period of sadness, emotional torment and hardship. It has been one year of mourning. We are a bereaved community that has lost 219 daughters,” he told said.
“Our hope in finding our girls is now in Buhari. We hope we will soon see our girls if they are alive or at least their corpses if they are dead.
“I personally know what Buhari did as brigade commander for the northeast in 1975. We all know how in 1984 he crushed the violent Maitatsine sect, which is similar to Boko Haram”.
The mass abduction brought the brutality of the Islamist insurgency unprecedented worldwide attention and prompted a viral social media campaign demanding their immediate release.
Nigeria’s government was criticised for its initial response to the crisis and was forced into accepting foreign help in the rescue effort after a groundswell of global outrage.
In a new report published on Tuesday, Amnesty International quoted a senior military officer as saying the girls were being held at different Boko Haram camps, including in Cameroon and possibly Chad.
Testimony gathered by Amnesty from women and girls who escaped the militants said they were subject to forced labour and marriage, as well as rape.
#BringBackOurGirls organisers thanked supporters across the world, from ordinary men, women and children to public figures such as US First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.
The girls have become “the symbol for the defence of the dignity and sanctity of human life, of the girl child, women, for all those oppressed, repressed, disadvantaged, hurting, unsafe,” they said.
Malala, who was shot and nearly killed by the Pakistani Taliban for advocating girls’ education, on Monday published an open letter to the Chibok girls, describing them as “my brave sisters”.
The 17-year-old criticised Nigerian and world leaders for not doing enough to help secure their release and called the girls “my heroes”.
Twenty-one of the 57 girls who escaped are currently studying at the American University of Nigeria.
