Abuja — The five-year anniversary of the Chibok school abduction is a reminder that schoolchildren remain vulnerable to attacks and abductions by Boko Haram fighters in Nigeria’s beleaguered northeast region. The lack of information on the whereabouts of 112 of the schoolgirls, as well as hundreds of other children abducted from Damasak, underscores the continued suffering of their families and the continued risk of new abductions.
The abduction, on April 14, 2014, of 276 schoolgirls from the government-owned Chibok Secondary school in Borno State caught the world’s attention and sparked a campaign for their release. Human Rights Watch research, however, showed that Boko Haram’s abductions of women and girls began before the Chibok incident and have continued. According to a UNICEF report, the group abducted more than 1,000 children between 2013 and 2018.
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