The story of the Chibok girls has gone around the world to make many people aware of the brutal activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria.
The very name conjures fear and conveys their conviction that Western (or Christian) education is wicked. Education standards in the area had been in decline because of the low priority given to schools. The outbreak of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2009 gave a further deadly blow to the little that was left of education in the region. Most schools in Borno State have remained closed since 2013 with many of the children in stop-gap camps or in the homes of relatives across different parts of the country as internally displaced persons.
Attacks and threats
The climax of the disdain for Western education (especially for girls) was demonstrated in 2014 when the final-year students of most of the schools in southern Borno were recalled to sit their Senior Secondary School exams. On the night of 14th April a total of 276 school girls were abducted by Boko Haram from Government Secondary School Chibok. While some escaped or have been released, the painful reality is that the majority are still in captivity.
