At the time of writing, there were ongoing concerns for the safety of 129 girls kidnapped from their school in Chibok in Borno State on April 14 by members of the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, with reports that some have already been sold into Chad.
Since a spokesman for Boko Haram stated he would sell the girls, world leaders, who had in the main been silent until this broadcast, expressed their disgust at the kidnapping and began offering help to Nigeria; social networks were filled with demands for the girls to be returned. Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s president, hoped this would spell the beginning of the end of Islamist terrorism in Nigeria.
Mixed messages
In a statement, the Nigerian Defence Headquarters said that most of the victims had been freed ‘in the ongoing search and rescue operations’, claiming that ‘the principal of the school confirmed that only eight of the students were still missing’.
