On the night of April 14-15, 2014, Boko Haram insurgents kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok, in northeastern Nigeria, about a two-hour drive from the border with Cameroon. The Government Girls Secondary School had been closed for a month because of the danger posed by these insurgents, who are opposed to Western education, particularly for girls. Students from several schools were however called in to take a final exam in physics. Hours later,the insurgents stormed the school in a convoy of trucks and buses, engaging in a gun battle with the school’s security guards. Then they forced the girls from their dormitories, loaded them into trucks and drove them into the forest. Most have never been seen since then. The girls were aged between 16 and 18 years old. Next week will make it two years that the Chibok girls were abducted as the search is still on. Borno-born journalist Ahmad Salkida who has over the years written reports about Boko Haram has said there are only 2 ways the girls can be released. Salkida in a tweet said, “#Chibokgirls have two options: between a force rescue and a negotiated release, the latter is understood by the Govt as a stain of defeat.”
