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| Amina Ali |
Amina Ali, the rescue Chibok school girl, sits
during a meeting with Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari at the
Presidential palace in Abuja, Nigeria, Thursday, May. 19, 2016. The
first Chibok teenager to escape from Boko Haram's Sambisa Forest
stronghold was flown to Abuja on Thursday and met with Nigeria's
president, even as her freedom adds pressure on the government to do
more to rescue 218 other missing girls. (AP Photo/Azeez Akunleyan)
The fact that one Chibok girl basically rescued herself last week shouldn’t make any of us feel better.
The family of Amina Ali Nkeki has a reason to celebrate. The rest of the world does not.
The response from the Nigerian government and the
Obama administration to one abducted Chibok girl’s escape last week is
symptomatic of a larger issue. Real action – not just posturing and
attention seeking – is needed to rescue these girls, now missing for
more than two years.
I was hardly surprised to see the Nigerian
government immediately attempting to celebrate (and take credit for)
the purported rescue of a second Chibok girl just days after Amina’s
escape – the second girl, it turned out, was not actually among those
taken in the mass kidnapping in 2014. After all, the Nigerian government
has been more preoccupied with securing positive international
impressions than they have been about securing freedom for the Chibok
girls.
Now more than ever, we need to refocus attention on
Amina’s escape, as she is currently the only Chibok girl from the mass
kidnapping to emerge after two years of captivity. Her self-rescue
should fill leaders in the free world with shame on behalf of her
classmates’ continued imprisonment.
This is not the time for the world to celebrate. This is the time to confront our shame.
How have we allowed more than 200 girls to remain
trapped in captivity for over two years, held by one of the world’s most
brutal terrorist groups?
Amina was found last Tuesday by local witnesses with
her baby, wandering out of the Sambisa Forest in northern Nigeria. This
location is known to be a Boko Haram stronghold and has been thought to
be a possible location where the Chibok girls have been held.
Within hours of Amina’s sighting, the Nigerian
government was—unsurprisingly—eagerly attempting to take credit for her
release. Their attempts to capitalize are disgraceful; they also make me
realize why the search for remaining Chibok girls has been so
unfruitful. It appears that the Nigerian government has been much more
concerned about good press than actual results on behalf of the captured
schoolgirls. While the girls wait, cowardice and corruption continue to
be the prevailing reality.
Within the Obama administration, we’re seeing hopeful
words and hashtag advocacy on the ongoing captivity of the Chibok girls
(with First Lady Michele Obama raising the issue by tweeting a photo of
herself joining #BringBackOurGirls). But the one action from the
administration that holds the most promise has yet to be accomplished.
President Obama still hasn’t visited Nigeria during his nearly two full
terms in office. Not once. (Obama is reported to currently be tinkering
with the possibility of a trip to Nigeria in July. To that I say,
better late than never.)
In an
advocacy campaign launched earlier this year, Open Doors USA has been urging President Obama to prioritize a trip to Nigeria.
We’re also asking him to
issue a statement
on the desperate situation of persecuted Christians in Northern
Nigeria, including the Chibok girls, as a result of Boko Haram and other
groups.
We’re also encouraging him to put pressure on
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to support investigations into
allegations that prominent Nigerian politicians have been funneling
financial support to Boko Haram. It isn’t too late for more Americans to
add their voices to our call for action.
Last week’s news of one girl’s freedom can and should
be an opportunity to advocate for those still held captive. For Amina,
much care will be needed to help her begin to heal the physical and
emotional scars of her ordeal. But I cannot help but rejoice for her
family as their personal nightmare comes to an end.
I visited with several of the fathers of the
kidnapped Chibok girls while in Jos, Nigeria, several months ago. As
director of advocacy at Open Doors USA, I wanted to hear firsthand about
the challenges facing the families in the wake of their daughters’
disappearance.
What I witnessed broke my heart.
Open Doors is on the ground in Nigeria, providing
trauma counseling and practical support for the families of the
kidnapped girls. But the needs are very deep, and the heartache these
families endure on a daily basis is gut wrenching.
I’m incredibly grateful that the pain of not knowing
what happened to their daughter is over for one family. But the voices
of the other fathers still ring in my ear.
After describing his daughter to me, one father put
his head in his hands and wept, softly crying over and over, “I miss
her, I miss her, I miss her,” as tears ran down his face.
As I discovered while I was in Jos, at least 18 of
the parents of the missing Chibok girls have died in the wake of their
daughters’ kidnapping.
Tragically, even as Amina, the newly recovered Chibok
girl, is reunited with her mother, she will also be learning of the
death of her father.
“They didn’t die of old age,” one Chibok father was quick to tell me of the parents who have died. “They died of heartache.”
This is not the time for the world to celebrate. This is the time to confront our shame.
The world’s silence—and the inexcusable inaction of
our leaders—have allowed over 200 innocent girls to remain captives for
two years. It is time to demand action and insist that we do whatever is
in our power to rescue the Chibok girls and reunite them with their
families.
Kristin Wright is the advocacy director at Open Doors USA. She
works with government officials to address issues of religious
persecution throughout the world, and take action for those who are
suffering.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
