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Michelle Obama Condemns Chibok School Girls Abduction

Published

11 years ago

May 10, 2014

Michelle Obama, the United States First Lady, has revealed that she and her husband were “outraged and heartbroken” over the abduction of over 234 female students from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram sect.

The U.S first lady made this known on Saturday while speaking on behalf of her husband, President Barack Obama, in the weekly presidential address.
“What happened in Nigeria was not an isolated incident. It’s a story we see every day as girls around the world risk their lives to pursue their ambitions” she said.
Obama compared the kidnap of the girls and the attacks on schools in Northern Nigeria to the attack on Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl who shot by the Taliban for campaigning for girl child education in Pakistan.
The U.S first lady speech comes days after she joined the campaign to free the girls when she tweeted a picture of herself carrying the #BringBackOurGirls banner at the White House.
Meanwhile, the United States President had already declared to help Nigeria rescue the kidnapped girls, and American security and intelligence officials have already arrived the country to join the Nigerian Army in the rescue mission.
The girls were kidnapped on April 14, and Boko Haram, which has killed thousands of people since its insurgency began in 2009, has threatened to sell or marry off the girls.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday expressed optimism that the girls were still in Nigeria and had not been taken to neighbouring African countries, while Amnesty International, in a recent report claimed that the military had at least a four-hour prior notice of the attack on Chibok before it took place.
The group said it spoke to civilian and military sources in the country who confirmed the warning, but the Nigerian army has refuted the claims.