Congresswomen condemn Nigerian girls abduction

U.S. Congresswomen visit the Nigeria Embassy in Washington, D.C., to condemn the abduction of girls three weeks ago by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

Published

over 4 years ago

Categories

World

Topics

World, Africa, Politics & Government, Human Rights

People

Sheila Jackson Lee

Places

United States of America, Nigeria, Cameroon, Washington, D.C.

Transcript

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) Outside of the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, D.C., a group of Congresswomen condemned the abduction of schoolgirls in Nigeria and vowed to fight to bring those responsible for the kidnapping to justice. "We are anguished as mothers, grandmothers, and lovers of children that this is what the children - the girls in Nigeria - are worth," Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee said on Wednesday (May 7) as she held U.S. dollars in the air. "So our first command and demand is to use all resources to bring the terrorist thugs to justice." Lee and several others visited the embassy to meet with Nigerian officials to discuss the efforts to find the girls, who were abducted more than three weeks ago in the northeastern Borno state. The Islamist militant group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the abduction and said in a video released this week that the group would sell the girls on the market. Boko Haram militants stormed an all-girl secondary school in the village of Chibok, in Borno state, on April 14 and packed the teenagers, who had been taking exams, onto trucks and disappeared into a remote area along the border with Cameroon. The attack shocked Nigerians, who have been growing accustomed to hearing about atrocities in an increasingly bloody five-year-old Islamist insurgency in the north. The group's name means "Western education is sinful" and the video makes reference to the fact that the girls were undergoing Western education. The assertion by the group angered Congresswoman Marcia Fudge. "You know, they say they are warlords and they are fighting for what is right. No, they are not. No, they are not," Fudge said. "And these wars have not become wars on governments. They have become wars on girls and children. And it is time for it to stop." The visit by the congresswomen comes on the heels of the U.S. offering to send a team to Nigeria to support the government's efforts to find the girls.