A mother of one of the abducted schoolgirls

News continues to come from Nigeria in regards to the story of 234 schoolgirls (a number that was originally thought to be closer to 100) abducted and taken as ‘wives’ for Boko Haram militants.

There have been reports of the abductors firing celebratory gunshots following scenes of mass marriages, with the young women being sold for as little as $12. The distraught families of the girls have been organizing their own search and rescue parties, reports The Guardian, meeting and pooling their money each day to pay for fuel before venturing, unarmed, into the forest where the militants are thought to be hiding.

We desperately hope for the safe return of these young women to their families. The incident underlines the importance of the work we do to seek an end to LRA violence and justice for Joseph Kony – child abductors around the world cannot be allowed to continue their crimes. Ending LRA atrocities will set a precedent: perpetrators of these outrageous acts cannot continue to walk freely.

Read the Washington Post’s article on the abductions here.

This blog was published in its original format below on April 18, 2014, and has been updated. We are following this story because we believe that that stopping injustice anywhere is the responsibility of humanity everywhere. While we don’t work in Nigeria, the kidnapping of these girls is an act that has many parallels to the atrocities of Joseph Kony’s LRA, and deserves the outrage and action of the world.

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Early Tuesday morning in Nigeria, more than 100 schoolgirls were abducted from their beds. Suspected Islamic extremists from the group Boko Haram have taken the girls to become sex slaves and ‘cooks’. A few of the girls escaped from the truck they were piled into by swinging off branches and jumping from the moving vehicle.

Boko Haram militants. The group is responsible for the abduction of over 100 girls on Tuesday morning.

Boko Haram militants. The group is responsible for the abduction of over 100 girls on Tuesday morning.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour reported on Joseph Kony and his child soldiers 16 years ago, and now she’s drawn comparisons between the LRA’s brutal kidnappings and this attack by Boko Haram in Nigeria. The 8 minute video on the CNN site is a moving reminder of the vile acts Kony has committed and is still committing. Amanpour references the LRA’s abduction of 139 girls from a boarding school in 1996, interviewing the brave nun who chased down the LRA group who had taken the girls, retrieving all but 30 of the school children.

Boko Haram means ‘western education is forbidden.’ The truth is that it is not just ‘western’ education that extremist groups fear, but any education that encourages free-thought to flourish. Groups such as the LRA and Boko Haram abuse the idea of religion, using it as a thin veil for extremist ideas. They are threatened by empowered young women and men who see through this thin veil. The agendas of those who would wish to rule a population against their will cannot survive where educated young people won’t allow it. The leaders of Boko Haram are more afraid of schoolchildren with ideas of their own than they are of any military force.

Watch the CNN video and read the article here.

(Picture credit: Washington Post, Press TV)