BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhuanet) -- The Nigerian military has joined the search for at least 100 teenage girls abducted from a school in the remote northeast. According to witnesses, the Islamist rebels duped dozens of Nigerian schoolgirls into thinking that they were soldiers who had come to evacuate them before abducting them in their latest anti-government raid. The suspected Boko Haram gunmen swooped on Chibok town in Borno state and on its nearby all-girls government secondary school late on Monday, calling on the students to leave their beds in the hostel.
It’s been 48 hours now after the girls were abducted from their schools and there is no word yet on their whereabouts.
Other than confirm the attack, authorities are not saying much. Neither has the radical islamist sect, Boko Haram issued a statement.
Security sources say the military is currently carrying an operation with the support of local volunteers around forests in communities along the country’s border with Cameroon to trace the girls.
"The government must make a clear statement that those girls should be unconditionally released. And if the terrorist refused to heed, there should be a decisive action; a decalartion of war against these terrorists," said Wahab Shittu, lawyer.
It’s actually not the first time Boko Haram militants would be carrying out abduction of this nature.
In February this year, the sect attacked this school in Yobe state, killing 40 male students and abducting about twenty-five of their female colleagues to obviously use as sex slave.
Nothing has been heard about the fate of the girls since then.
"These people want to make tremendous impact. And they seem to be succeeding while the politicians are busy playing politics with everything, including our collective survival. They are busy strategizing for 2015," said Wahab Shittu.
Boko Haram, which literally translates to "Western education is sinful", has constantly targeted schools for attacks. Several students have been killed in its attacks and countless school buildings burnt down.
The Bornu state government, one of the states under emergency rule, has shutdown all schools in the state to ward off further attacks.
But the leadership of the insurgents has vowed to sustain the attack on schools. And so far, the sect has kept to that vow.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
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