Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai on Monday criticised Nigerian and world leaders for failing to help free 219 schoolgirls kidnapped a year ago by Boko Haram militants.
“In my opinion, Nigerian leaders and the international community have not done enough to help you,” she said in a letter to the teenagers on the eve of the first anniversary of their abduction.
“They must do much more to help secure your release. I am among many people pressuring them to make sure you are freed,” she added, calling the girls “my brave sisters”.
Malala’s letter, which she said was “a message of solidarity love and hope”, comes as events, including marches, prayers and vigils, were being held to mark the girls’ 12 months in captivity.
The United Nations Children’s Fund on Monday said that 800,000 of the 1.5 million people displaced by Boko Haram violence were children.
More than 300 schools have been severely damaged or destroyed between January 2012 and December last year, with at least 196 teachers and 314 schoolchildren killed in that period, it added.
“Children have become deliberate targets, often subject to extreme violence — from sexual abuse and forced marriage to kidnappings and brutal killings,” it said in a report, “Missing Childhoods”.
Children had also become weapons of war, being forced to fight alongside the militants and also used as human bombs, it added.
At a UNICEF-run camp in Baga Sola, across the border in Chad, AFP recently saw stark and haunting images drawn by children of the violence, including bloody faces, headless bodies and burnt houses.
“They draw and then we can talk about the pictures. We have to push them to open up. It wasn’t easy at first, but now they’re proud to be heard,” said organiser Ndorum Ndoki.
