Gordon Brown, the former British Prime Minister and current UN envoy, has pleaded with Boko Haram to release the Chibok girls who have been held captive since mid-April 2014.
Mr Brown, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, reacted after Boko Haram’s release of 158 women and children taken during a raid on Katarko in December 2014.
Although the circumstances of this latest release are still unclear, it has raised hopes that the Chibok girls, too, could eventually be reunited with their families.
Mr Brown said families have suffered 10 months of “cruelty and anguish” not knowing the girls’ fate, and he promised there would be no relent to find and free them.
“I am making a humanitarian plea after the terrorists released a separate group of women and girls following a kidnapping that took place in December. Now they have released some hostages, they should release them all,” he said.
“Boko Haram are piling cruelty upon cruelty by failing to free the girls. They have now been away from their families for 10 months.
“We will keep up pressure until they are released and if they are still prisoners we will mark the one year of captivity with a vigil planned at the United Nations in New York on April 14.”
The whereabouts of the girls still remain unknown, despite the worldwide Bring Back Our Girls campaign. The last time they were shown was just weeks after the kidnap, with Boko Haram sending the video to news agencies.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
