Nigeria’s government confirmed that 110 girls are still missing a week after Boko Haram militants attacked the town of Dapchi, according to the Associated Press. Information Minister Lai Mohammed made the announcement Sunday. Meanwhile, family members of the girls claim that officials have been slow to respond to the kidnappings.
The girls were captured from Government Girls Science and Technical College on February 19, and it’s currently unknown what their fate is. Witnesses said that Boko Haram asked specifically where the girls’ school was located. Other witnesses told officials they saw the girls being taken away at gunpoint. The Islamist extremist group kidnapped 276 girls from a boarding school in Chibok back in 2014. The incident shocked the world and initiated the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign calling for the girls' return.
Boko Haram later revealed that many of the girls from Chibok were forced to marry their captors. To this day, about 100 of the girls kidnapped in 2014 have never returned back to their families, according to AP.
There has been back and forth from officials, who previously misstated that some of the girls have been rescued. Nigeria’s president has called the kidnapping a “national disaster” and said that armed forces are working to locate the girls. “The entire country stands as one with the girls’ families, the government and the people of Yobe State. This is a national disaster. We are sorry that this could have happened and share your pain,” President Muhammadu Buhari said in a press conference earlier this week. “We pray that our gallant armed forces will locate and safely return your missing family members.”
