Do Not Forget Schoolgirls Kidnapped By Boko Haram, Urges Victim

Do Not Forget Schoolgirls Kidnapped By Boko Haram, Urges Victim

A Nigerian schoolgirl kidnapped by Boko Haram almost three years ago has called on the world not to forget those still missing.

Around 270 girls and young women were taken by the militant group from a boarding school in Chibok, a town in north-east Nigeria, in April 2014, and almost 200 have still not returned.

Speaking at the Global Education and Skills forum in Dubai, one of the girls urged the international community to do something to bring back those still in captivity.

The youngster, speaking under the pseudonym Sa'a, said: "It's really painful and emotional that 195 of my classmates are still missing.

"How would you feel if your own daughter, your sister or your wife had gone missing? If you have lost someone, you know how you feel, even if you see that person died in front of you, you still have the memory.

"What if your sister, your daughter, went missing, not only for one day, two days, but three years and are still not back? How would you sleep? How would you feel?"

It is "unbelievable" that the girls are still not back, she added.

Sa'a said: "The world has to do something. Speaking out, and telling the world about it. We all have to do something about it. One person, two people, cannot do it - the world has to join hands together and do something about it.

"Because those girls are human beings, are not just something that we can forget about."

Twenty-one of the kidnapped schoolgirls were released last autumn.

Earlier, Sa'a had told how Boko Haram came to her school at night and forced the schoolgirls to leave in the back of a truck.

As it travelled through a forest, some of girls began jumping out, she said.

"I was sitting in the truck thinking, 'where am I going? what are they going to do with us?'. I said to my friend, 'I'm going to jump out too'."

Sa'a described how she jumped out of the truck and hid. Her friend also jumped, and hurt her ankle.

When it became light, Sa'a said she went to look for help and eventually found a shepherd who agreed to assist them, allowing them to return to their families.

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