Very importantant petition to sign to raise awareness of the 276 Kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls

I'm putting this here, although it possibly the wrong place, but this is an attempt to persuade the Nigerian Government to do something!


https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/over-200-girls-are-missing-in-nigeria-please-help-find-them-bringbackourgirls


Many of us (including Amal Alamuddin) are involved with the fight against FGM, and who knows what on earth is happening to these poor girls! or where they are........!!

I'll look at this and sign, this story is shocking

I read as some had been sold in to marriage

Signed and shared !

Brilliant!!

This story is just horrible. And it's sickening that 234 missing African girls don't get as much media attention as one missing plane.

I saw that in the news not too long ago. It was only a short report. Sad that a horrible thing like that gets not enough attention...

I signed too.  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2622999/Celebrities-join-campaign-bring-kidnapped-Nigerian-girls.html

for Nigerian girls

BringBackOurGirls: Michelle Obama and Malala join campaign to free 276 Nigerian teenagers kidnapped by Islamic extremists 

• Celebrities have joined #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign
  
• Male stars are also uploading images saying: 'Real men don't buy girls'
  
  
• Campaign to recover the 276 girls kidnapped from their school in Nigeria
  
• Girls were kidnapped on April 14 by Islamist militant group Boko Haram
  
• Protests have been going on across the country demanding action
  
• Nigerian Police offering £300,000 reward for help locating the children
  
  

Celebrities around the world have voiced their outrage over the abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Nigeria last month, flooding social media with posts using the hashtag: #BringBackOurGirls.


Michelle Obama, Malala Yousafzai, Hillary Clinton, and Amy Poehler are among those lending their support to the social media campaign, which encourages military intervention to recover the girls who were kidnapped from their school by Boko Haram rebels in north-east Nigeria.
Malala Yousafzai told CNN that the kidnapped girls were her 'sisters'. Angelina Jolie also spoke publicly about the kidnapping, which she called 'unthinkable cruelty and evil'.




Michelle Obama shared this photo of herself along with the caption 'Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families.'










Malala Yousafzai (left) and Amy Poehler (right) tweeted their support for the Bring Back Our Girls campaign


Michelle Obama shared a photograph on Twitter of herself holding up a sign reading 'Bring back our girls', accompanied by the caption: 'Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families. It's time to #BringBackOurGirls. -mo'
The sign-off 'mo' means that the tweet was written by the First Lady herself and not a staffer.



The campaign refers to the kidnapping of 276 girls from their school in Chibok, north-east Nigeria, on April 14. 

The Islamist militant group Boko Haram attacked the school, which had been reopened so that students could take their final exams, despite security concerns.




Hilary Clinton was among those who tweeted in support of the campaign, which encourages military intervention to recover the girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram rebels on April 14








Alex Chung (left) and Leona Lewis (right) have also joined the campaign by handwriting the messages 




Australian actress Gemma Pranita (left) and Australian model Renee Bargh (right) posted messages of support for the campaign


Kevin Frazier and Thea Andrews, co-hosts of The Insider, shared this photo via Twitter





Backing: Celebrities including Mary J Blige have joined a worldwide social media campaign putting pressure on the Nigerian government to bring the girls back


Most schools in the state had closed due to fear that Boko Haram, which opposes 'Western' education, including the education of girls, would attack.
On the night of April 14, more than 300 girls were kidnapped at gunpoint, but approximately 50 girls escaped by jumping off the back of the trucks as they drove into the Sambisa forest.

Family members of the kidnapped girls formed makeshift search parties and ventured into the forest to find the girls, armed with homemade weapons, but they have not found the girls, whom they now fear have been sold into slavery.




Jada Pinkett-Smith pledged her support by posting a photo from Unicef on her Twitter page


It has also emerged that the group had kidnapped another 11 girls from the village of Warabe in Borno yesterday, increasing the international pressure for the extremist group to be stopped and the girls returned.
Nigerian Police are now offering a £300,000 reward to anyone who can help them find the missing children.
Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram said he would sell the remaining captives as slaves for as little as £7.
In a video, Shekau declares: 'I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah.'





The tweet that launched it all: Lawyer Ibrahim M. Abdullahi was the first to use the hashtag on April 23 during a UNESCO address






Global support: (From left to right) Wunmi Shitta from Lagos, actress Julie Hesmondhalgh and Uju Nwolum, from Anambra attend a demonstration in Manchester about the kidnapping





Worldwide protest: Students from the European Student Union added their voices to the campaign


With outrage growing over the failure to rescue the girls, thousands of Nigerians took to the streets of the country’s largest city Lagos last week to protest at their government’s inability to find the victims.

The Bring Back Our Girls hashtag was first used on April 23 by a Nigerian lawayer, Ibrahim M. Abdullahi, who tweeted the phrase during a speech given by Dr Oby Ezekwesili, Vice President of the World Bank for Africa, at a UNESCO event.
The hashtag gained traction in Nigeria and started trending there two weeks ago and has now been picked up internationally, with people around the world sharing photos of themselves holding up signs reading #BringBackOurGirls.
Protests have also taken place around the world, with around 75 protesters rallying outside the Nigerian embassy in Washington on Tuesday wearing Bring Back Our Girls T-shirts.


Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has said security forces are doing all they can to find the girls.
It has been reported that his government is in negotiations with the terrorists who are demanding an unspecified ransom for the students' release.
The White House has branded the kidnapping an 'outrage and tragedy'.
The State Department said the US are sending a 'co-ordination cell' including military personnel and law experts to Nigeria.


Pledging his support, President Obama said: 'We're going to do everything we can to provide assistance to them.
'In the short term our goal is obviously to help the international community, and the Nigerian government, as a team to do everything we can to recover these young ladies.'
British Special Forces have also been put on standby after Foreign Secretary William Hague described the abduction as 'disgusting and immoral'.
Military chiefs in London are considering sending in the Special Air Service and the Special Boat Service to help search for the schoolgirls.


Downing Street revealed British security experts would be joining teams from France and the US in trying to find the girls.
The team has been drawn from Whitehall departments including Defence, International Development and the Foreign Office.
It is likely to include military officers but will concentrate on planning, co-ordination and advice to local authorities, rather than getting involved in operations on the ground to free the girls. 


However, Mr Hague has become frustrated with the situation, after he first offered his assistance nearly three weeks ago.
He told Sky News: 'It's difficult of course because this is primarily a matter for Nigeria and Britain can't just walk in there... and do as we like.
'It's very frustrating when the world can't act to deal with these things promptly because the trail goes cold of course after several weeks.'
A social media campaign to raise awareness globally about the kidnapping is gaining momentum with celebrities including Mary J Blige adding their support.
The mass kidnapping occurred the same day as a bomb blast, also blamed on Boko Haram, that killed 75 people on the edge of Abuja and marked the first attack on the capital in two years.
The militants repeated that bomb attack more than two weeks later in almost exactly the same spot, killing 19 people and wounding 34 in the suburb of Nyanya.

Missa wrote:This story is just horrible. And it's sickening that 234 missing African girls don't get as much media attention as one missing plane.

Truly horrible and sickening. And what can be done?

What comes to plane, it got more coverage because it could have happened to everyone. People fly Malesian Airlines to holiday, golf, and business meetings from all around the world. It´s not just Malesian.

Great article It's me. Finally great attention the case gets. I hope it will help

thanks to you Nicky80
it was you to put the article in this so clear form

thanks

we can try too
no?   

Thanks for the petition link....I've signed and emailed 
it on.

The Twitter idea is brilliant and hopefully will 
have some effect.

Twitter is alive with this stuff - it's really taking off now - at last.  But people like Mariella Frostrup and Kathy Lette have been leading the charge for days..........

This is interesting too

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gordon-brown/nigeria-kidnapping-satellite_b_5275782.html

Gordon Brown's been pushing the envelope too


[ltr]U.S. and U.K. Should Provide Satellite and Surveillance Technology to Free Boko Haram's Kidnapped Girls[/ltr]




[ltr]With the kidnap of eight more girls from the northeast Nigerian village of Warabe, the abduction crisis in Nigeria has taken a new turn for the worst. Not only has Boko Haram now told the world that the first 270 girls kidnapped are to be sold as sex slaves, but by escalating its attacks by snatching even younger girls -- this time the children are aged 12 to 15 -- it is engendering even greater international outrage.[/ltr]




[ltr]If Boko Haram terrorists think they can capture school girls with impunity, then their reign of terror will intensify. So it is reassuring that this week U.K. and U.S. diplomatic leaders are discussing how they can assist the Nigerian authorities in identifying and then locating the girls now held in forest hideaways.[/ltr]




[ltr]By doing so, they are sending out a message to Boko Haram that friends of Nigeria will not stand by if the terrorist campaign continues. Tomorrow in a visit to Abuja, I will talk to the Nigerian authorities about how friendly governments can coordinate support and help them deal with the terrorist menace.[/ltr]




[ltr]For over five years, Boko Haram has wreaked havoc targeting schools in its murderous campaign that has seen more than 4,000 deaths. Two months ago at a boy's school in the north, 50 young children were massacred. Last year, another group of girls who had been abducted were finally rescued after weeks at the mercy of Boko Haram militants.[/ltr]




[ltr]Some of the girls were pregnant after being used as sex slaves. Now the Boko Haram leadership has announced that they plan to sell the 270 girls from Borno state and disperse them throughout Africa, making it impossible for parents to locate them. Boko Haram's attitude to women is that they should be servants who remain uneducated. The name Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden," and the group has threatened a new wave of kidnapping in the months to come.[/ltr]




[ltr]Tackling this terrorist threat demands that we help locate girls who are now in captivity and show Boko Haram that its actions will be met with reprisals. Surveillance and other equipment has to be made available to the Nigerian authorities to root the terrorists out -- but we must also make sure that schools are safe for children to attend. Our call for satellite and air surveillance support by America and Britain is based on the urgency of the situation -- these girls may be dispersed soon. There is an obvious need to back up the Nigerian effort with high technology support.[/ltr]




[ltr]A new "safe schools" initiative is desperately needed in Nigeria with measures that include guards to reassure worried parents that schools are secure.[/ltr]




[ltr]United Nations warnings that abductions are war crimes have to be complemented by a new effort to signal that schools will be treated by the international community as safe havens.[/ltr]




[ltr]"Bring back our girls" is the banner under which worried parents are now marching demanding action to free their daughters. In the future, we must make Nigerian schools safe so that these atrocities cease to be a regular occurrence.[/ltr]

Heard on the news today that Boko Haram might trade the girls for terrorists being held in prison. I hope there's another way to get them back.

Unfortunately, Boko Haram have had such a terror hold in Nigeria for so long that the government is either afraid of, in some degree of collaboration with, or infiltrated by the organization. It's a human tragedy, and the growing awareness is tremendous, but it will have no effect on Boko Haram. The only reason the Nigerian government is "doing something" now and accepting international assistance is that the glare of global derision shamed them into making a show of it.

These poor girls have been essentially sacrificed by their own government.

Still, I'll sign. I've certainly put my name on lesser causes.