Has Everyone Forgotten #Bring Back Our Girls?

by Jael SC · Published April 21, 2016 · Updated April 21, 2016

Well the Church hasn’t. Nigerian bishops urge government to hasten effort to free abductees. Two Nigerian bishops called on the government to hasten its efforts to free 219 school girls who were abducted by insurgents two years ago.

Two Nigerian bishops are calling on the government to hasten efforts to free more than 200 school girls abducted by insurgents in 2014

Bishops Matthew Audu of Lafia and George Dodo of Zaria urged officials to boost intelligence gathering efforts and muster the political will to find the girls, who were taken from their dormitories by Boko Haram forces during a middle-of-the-night raid at a school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria April 14, 2014.

The bishops told Catholic News Service it is unlikely that all of the girls will be found because media have reported that some had been killed or sold off to be married by the insurgents. They urged the country to pray for the abductors so that they have a change of heart and consider releasing the students.

New video images recently obtained by CNN and apparently filmed on Christmas Day showed some of the girls dressed in black robes pleading with the Nigerian government to cooperate with the militants on their release. They said they were being treated well but wanted to be with their families.

Family members and friends identified some of the young people as students from the school.

The Catholic News Agency for Africa reported that relatives of the girls marched in the capital, Abuja, on the anniversary, calling for government action.

“Only God knows what their abductors might have done to them, where they would be by now. It might be true that some might have been killed, some molested and some married out by their abductors,” Bishop Audu said. “That we can still recover all those abducted on … is not certain,” Bishop Audu said.