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International support has poured in for the 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, increasing pressure on Nigerian authorities to resolve the crisis soon. The Nigerian extremist organization, led by Abubakar Muhammad Shekau, had threatened to sell the girls as slaves recently. The terrorist organization has been behind several violent incidents in Nigeria since 2009, with most of its Islamic allies also severing all ties with it because of its extremism.
On Thursday, the Vatican appealed for the release of the girls, voicing its “compassion” and “horror for the physical and spiritual suffering”. Spokesman Federico Lombardi condemned the “terrorists”, saying that it was “the latest of the horrible acts of violence that have characterized the activity of this group in Nigeria for a long time”.
“The total lack of respect for life and for human dignity, including for the most innocent, vulnerable and defenseless people demands an extremely firm condemnation. This evokes compassion filled with sadness for the victims, horror for the spiritual and physical suffering and for the incredible humiliations that they are being subjected to”, he said on Vatican radio.
Several world powers, including China, Canada, France, the UK and the US have joined the hunt for the kidnapped schoolgirls. The US is sending a team of security experts, skilled in intelligence, hostage negotiation, victim assistance, investigation and information sharing. France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that his country was ready to send “a specialized team to help with the search and rescue”.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan received similar commitments from British Prime Minister David Cameron and the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Canada is also set to send its own team of experts, with Foreign Minister John Baird saying “if Canada has surveillance equipment, and it is not in the region that could provide assistance to help find these young girls, we would be pleased to provide it and the technical expertise to operate that equipment” in the House of Commons on Wednesday. The Nigerian police have currently offered a reward of $300,000 for information leading to the rescue of the girls.
Several celebrities in the West have also voiced their support for the girls by using #BringBackOurGirls on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Prominent celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, Jamie Foxx, Ashton Kutcher, Amy Poehler, Chris Brown, Mary J. Blige, Queen Latifah and several others took to the site to voice their support. US First Lady Michelle Obama, US politician Hillary Clinton, British journalist Piers Morgan, Pakistani activist Yusuf Malala and several others also voiced their support for the kidnapped girls on the site.
A petition to the UN on change.org, declaring “solidarity with the kidnapped girls” and calling upon the world “not to forget them” and “ensure their safe return”, has already received over 700,000 signatures to date, including several notable politicians and celebrities.
Click here to sign the petition.
