One year after kidnapping, over 200 Nigerian girls still missing

April 14, 2015

One year after the kidnapping of 276 girls by Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria, the country’s Christians are still hoping “that one day we shall receive that good news” that they are safe, says Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos.

Speaking to Vatican Radio on the anniversary of the kidnappings, the archbishop noted that 216 girls remain missing. “We do not know even if they are alive,” he said. While expressing special sympathy for the families of the missing girls, Archbishop Kaigama went on to say that “they are not alone, because the whole community and Nigerian families are with them.”

The archbishop said that he hopes a new Nigerian government would make progress in curtailing the Boko Haram raids on civilians. The country’s newly elected president, Muhammadu Buhari, “is a former senior official who knows the military and intelligence issues very well,” he observed.

 

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Further information:

• Mgr. Kaigama: "It is worrying that we do not know anything about the Chibok girls one year after their kidnapping" (Fides)
• Nigeria seeks answers to mass kidnappings one year on (Vatican Radio)