Graca Machel
Graca Machel, prominent child rights campaigner and Nelson Mandela’s widow will be meeting some of the parents of the 219 girls abducted by Islamist Boko Haram militants last year. The date of meeting which will be held in Lagos is yet to be announced, but it is meant to support the parents of the girls as they deal with the trauma caused by the abductions.
|Seventeen of the girls’ parents have reportedly died since their abduction, as the kidnap of the girls from a school in Chibok sparked global outrage.
In May last year, Machel, a sent a message of encouragement to the Chibok parents and urged the Nigerian authorities to do more to free the girls.
The Nigerian army has rescued hundreds of hostages from Boko Haram, but none of the kidnapped schoolgirls have been found.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who took office in May, has given the military a December deadline to defeat the militants.
With the support of neighbouring countries, Nigeria has recaptured most of the towns previously under Boko Haram control but the group still carries out frequent attacks, especially in Borno State, which includes Chibok.
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