Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani human rights activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning in favour of education for women recently met with Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan to discuss the missing Chibok girls, ahead of her seventeenth birthday.
During the visit Jonathan told Malala that he was doing everything in his power to bring back the missing girls and she encouraged him to meet with the families of the missing girls, which she herself did on her visit. He said: Terror is relatively new here and dealing with it has its challenges. The great challenge in rescuing the Chibok girls is the need to ensure that they are rescued alive.
Malala visited with the parents of the missing girls, as well as four of the girls who managed to escape, and joined them at a daily rally in Abuja . While the families and activists welcomed Malala’s visit, they were still disappointed that it took her visit to Nigeria to get the government to speak openly about the growing problem of Boko Haram.
After meeting with the parents as well as four of the girls who managed to escape Malala said “It’s quite difficult for a parent to know that their daughter is in great danger. My birthday wish this year is… bring back our girls now, and alive.” She added that she ‘sees the girls as sisters’ and pledged to ‘participate actively in the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign to make sure that they return safely’.
While Malala visited Nigeria as part of the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign terrorist group Boko Haram relaeased a video, which seemed to be mocking the campaign. In the video he said ‘bring back our girls? Bring back our army!’ alluding to his offer to swap Boko Haram prisoners for the girls.
Nigeria’s government has declined this offer.
