200 missing Nigerian schoolgirls

[spatchcock]

This is such a desperately sad story. The world has turned out to search for the Malaysia Airlines plane and remove bodies from the Sewol ferry (as is right, of course) but these girls are presumably still alive and no one seems to give a shit.

Thoughts? I fear there is little hope for these poor girls. Nigeria is an utter shambles and the army can't even protect the people. Sorry if there's already a thread on this, I couldn't find one.

[bellediva]

Yes very sad when the footy results get more media coverage! People just don't care when its black people involved.

[JourneyToThePlacentaOfTheEarth]

I agree with you bellediva. 200 missing School girls would be an incrediblely interesting story if they were white. Thus has happened before and the girls were finally rescued from their captors whom they had been forced to marry or serve. Some young girls were pregnant. All for having the cheek to want an education. As a Nigerian I fear for the country's future.

[hackmum]

It's incredibly sad and shocking. But this is the latest in a long line of attacks on schoolchildren in Nigeria. Extremely worrying.

[13Stitches]

Is there anything we can do?

[bellediva]

I'm not sure what we can do, but I would expect a lot more media interest and the international community to actually help with the search/rescue effort. I hate to think what those poor girls are going through. Their families must feel so powerless.

[claig]

This is terrible and happened about a week ago and yet there is hardly any news reporting on it at all. It is very strange how little coverage this is getting.

[Meglet]

yes, I've seen it flit in and out of the news for a week or so. But always low in priority .

[spatchcock]

Goodluck Jonathan called an 'emergency meeting' almost two weeks after the event. So the girls' own government doesn't give a shit. Everything you read highlights the utter despair of the parents and families, they even tried to rescue them themselves. It's desperate.

[YesAnastasia]

Can someone post a link please? Thank you

[spatchcock]

this is the most recent story I could find:

www.npr.org/2014/04/27/307451067/have-mercy-on-our-little-ones-kidnapping-agonizes-nigerians

[ColdTeaAgain]

This story is being discussed on Jeremy Vine's show on Radio 2 today.

Woeful how little media coverage there has been about this so far.

The media frenzy when one child goes missing in the UK...200 disappear in Nigeria and the press have shown very little interest

[spatchcock]

Poor girls, I can't stop wondering about them. Yeah, imagine the funds raised and the pledges to help if they had been from a white country.

There was an update yesterday saying that some of them had been 'married' and taken to neighbouring states. They will spend their lives in slavery.

[rabbitrisen]

How utterly sad.

Is this something that United Nations gets involved in?

[wasabipeanut]

I was thinking about this earlier. Janice Turner wrote a good piece in The Times at the weekend about it asking the reader to imagine the same thing happening at Roedean and what the reaction might be.

I'm so sad and disappointed by the lack of interest in these poor girls. I've been looking online for some sort of campaign group/FB group to support and try to keep attention up despite the male lead medias utter lack of interest.

[spatchcock]

Apparently Gordon Brown (in his role as UN education envoy) has offered assistance but I don't know what that is, and I don't know how far any assistance would even filter down in a shambolic country like Nigeria. It just seems so hopeless.

[SagaNorensLeatherTrousers]

I just can't even imagine. If it were my daughter...no I just can't even think what those poor families are going through. Those poor girls.

[nicename]

I have been following it in the newspapers - albeit small snippets. Maybe they are trying to keep it 'quiet' to make sure that the girls aren't murdered if there is a lot of coverage? Its bloody awful - so many attacks on schools.

[Tess999]

hoping there's more going on behind the scenes. sometimes in these cases a lot of media coverage causes panic / worst case scenario. like most people they are on my mind, certainly not forgotten about.

[Cocolepew]

Desparately sad and horrific, I've been following the story on the Huff post fb page.

[AugustRose]

I read this story at the weekend and was surprised and annoyed by how little news time has been given to such a terrible event. I too hope that it means something is happening to rescue them but somehow I just think they aren't important enough. Some terrible things are happening in this world.

[spatchcock]

I think they're not 'important' enough and no one cares enough either, and the longer time goes on the less likely it is they'll be found, as they're being 'married' off and taken over the border and soon they'll disappear into the ether.

[hackmum]

I agree the news reporting has been poor, but an awful lot of the news agenda is driven by how easy it is get access to information. The Nigerian government is obviously not doing/saying very much and I bet most of the national newspapers don't even have any correspondents based in Nigeria. So they are relying on whatever is released by news agencies, which isn't very much.

[spatchcock]

I disagree, the large news agencies like Reuters and AP have covered this from the start. It's up to newspapers to choose what they publish. I agree about the government not saying much but the info is out there.

[spatchcock]

Hundreds of women marching in Nigeria, and FB/Twitter campaign underway.

www.facebook.com/bringbackourgirls

[kateemo]

Some more coverage here: www.forharriet.com/2014/04/more-on-200-school-girls-missing-in.html

And there's a march in London on May 3rd: www.facebook.com/events/863565357002386/?fref=ts