Women’s organizations initiate mass rally for kidnapped schoolgirls

Women's organizations expect that about one million people will take part in a demonstration in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, on Wednesday. The women called for a rally to demand the release of 190 schoolgirls who were kidnapped by the Islamist Boko Haram sect in the north of the country two weeks ago – as reported by the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) in Göttingen on Tuesday. The women's protests are meant to increase the pressure on the army and the government to show more commitment towards a release of the hostages. "It is an indictment of Nigeria's security forces that there is still no information concerning the whereabouts of the 16 to 18 year-old schoolgirls, two weeks after their abduction," criticized Ulrich Delius, the STP's Africa-consultant in Göttingen on Tuesday. "Many of the women in Nigeria are losing patience with politicians and the military, who keep on stalling them with empty promises and implausible reports of success."

The army is trying to spread confidence by assuring that the hostage-takers are now surrounded – but not only family members are growing more and more concerned that the schoolgirls might get killed in an attempt to set them free by means of brute force. It was only last Friday that 40 Boko Haram fighters and four soldiers died in firefights between the alleged kidnappers and the army. Nine soldiers were wounded in the fighting. The army claims to have arrested two ringleaders of the hostage-takers in the course of the operation.

Tomorrow's mass demonstration was initiated by the Speaker of the NGO "Women's Rights for Borno," Professor Hauwa Abdu Biu. The idea for the campaign came up during a meeting of women's representatives in the state of Borno, chaired by Nana Kashim Shettima, the governor's wife. Ms. Shettima had appealed to all the wives of members of the security forces to urge their husbands to ensure that the youths will soon be rescued.

It is not the first time that the women of Nigeria call for public demonstrations to demand an end to the violence. In the Niger Delta, there were several women's strikes during the past 15 years, as a form of protest against armed conflicts and kidnappings – with enormous resonance. In August 2009, the women of the Niger Delta threatened their men to go on a "cooking strike" unless they settled for a peace agreement.

Ulrich Delius, head of STP's Africa department, is available for further questions: Tel. 0551 49906 27 or afrika@gfbv.de.