On Tuesday, May 14, 2019, Leah Sharibu clocked 16, and had also spent 449 days in Boko Haram captivity. On that day, Nigerians took to different social media platforms to mark her birthday and demand her release. Sharibu is the Christian girl still in captivity after she was abducted at Government Girls’ Science and Technical Secondary School in Dapchi, Yobe State, along with 111 other girls and a boy on February 19, 2018. At the time, she was 14 years old.
Although other girls were released, Sharibu has remained in Boko Haram captivity for her refusal to denounce her Christian faith. Before then, on the night of April 14, 2014, 276 female students were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State. Fifty-seven of them managed to escape over the next few months. In May 2016, one of the missing girls, Amina Ali, who was found, claimed that six of them had died.
Later in 2016, another set of 21 girls were freed in October, while another girl was rescued the following month. In January 2017, one of the girls was also found and 82 more girls were freed about four months later. In January 2018, one of the girls was also rescued. Meanwhile, about 100 of the schoolgirls have yet to return as Nigerians continue to endure a seemingly endless wait for their return five years after their abduction.
Following the abduction of Chibok girls, Bring Back Our Girls movement, a diverse group of citizens advocating for speedy and effective search and rescue of all the abducted girls and for a rapid containment and quelling of insurgency in Nigeria, was formed. The co-convener of the group, Aisha Yesufu, talks about its struggle in the last five years to ensure that all the girls in Boko Haram captivity are freed. Five years after the abduction of the Chibok girls, the co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls group, Aisha Yesufu, takes a trip down memory lane with Ademola Olonilua Read more