On 14 April 2014, 276 mainly Christian girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants from Chibok Girls State Secondary school, in northeastern Nigeria. Although some escaped and more have been rescued, 91 remain missing ten years later.
Persecuted church agency Open Doors’ supporters have been praying for the safe return of those girls for many years. Evangelicals Now asked a spokesperson for the organisation for an update on this appalling situation.
en: How have the families coped with the agony of not knowing what has happened to their children?
‘For the still-waiting Chibok parents, the disappearance of their daughters has been like death by slow asphyxiation. Yakubu Nkeki, the chairman of the Chibok Girls’ Parents’ Association explains, “We lost 38 parents in the first three years of the kidnapping. The slightest illness can take their life due to high blood pressure. They are in so much pain, because they think too much.’
en: What has happened in the intervening ten years with kidnappings? Are things getting worse or better?
‘By 2014, the Boko Haram’s insurgency had neared its peak. But mass kidnappings had not then become a main strategy for terrorising Christian majority communities. At Chibok, Boko Haram introduced a new tactic that many others would use to terrorise Christian and moderate Muslim communities as it pursued its ideological agenda and monetary gain.
‘Today kidnappings are a daily occurrence in Nigeria, but the impact is no less debilitating to those who have been taken and the families waiting to hear news, often selling all their belonging to pay exorbitant ransom payments.’
en: Chibok was a largely Christian school. How motivated are these kidnappings by religion, as opposed to money?
‘At Chibok in 2014 the motive was purely religious. Boko Haram terrorists wanted to send a clear message that Western education is forbidden (‘haram’) under Sharia law. It began to attack schools in 2010, killing hundreds of students by 2014, warning that they would continue as long as the Nigerian government interfered with traditional Islamic education.
‘Today, Boko Haram/ISWAP (northeast), Fulani militants (north central and Middle Belt) and bandits (northwest) continue to utilise kidnapping to try to cripple the church and moderate Muslim communities.’
