- Parents of 200 Nigerian
schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist rebels in
April said they were appealing directly to the
United Nations for help after losing hope that
the Nigerian government will rescue them.
A group lobbying for government action on
behalf of the parents met with UN Women, the
head of the UN representation in Nigeria, and
with officials of the UN Office for West Africa
last month.
The group has also appealed to Unicef,
campaign spokeswoman Bukola Shonibare
said.
UN officials were not immediately available
for comment.
"If the government cannot take action, we are
asking for the UN to come in and help and if
they reject, we just don't know what to do,"
Reverend Enoch Mark, leader of the parents,
told Reuters.
Two of his daughters were kidnapped.
It is not clear what any UN agency could do
without Nigerian government approval.
More than eight months since the abduction
of the girls from Chibok, in remote
northeastern Borno state, parents say they are
still in the dark about what the government is
doing.
A presidential spokesman said efforts to free
them continue but that details of the missions
are too sensitive to publish.
On April 14, Boko Haram militants raided the
school while the girls were taking exams.
They loaded 270 of them onto trucks.
Around 50 escaped shortly afterwards.
Boko Haram, which is fighting for an Islamic
state and whose name means "Western
education is sinful", had been kidnapping
children for more than a year, but the scale of
this attack shocked the world and sparked a
#BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign that
drew celebrities, including US First Lady
Michelle Obama.
The five-year-old insurgency has killed
thousands of people, displaced more than a
million and raised fears voting in presidential
elections on Feb 14 will be impossible across
stretches of the north-east.
"The Chibok community is pained, we cannot
take this anymore," Mr Dauda Iliya,
spokesman for the Chibok community in
Abuja, said at a New Year's Day rally of
parents, adding that they had written to the
United Nations to "protest this neglect and
nonchalance by the government."
President Goodluck Jonathan says the
government is trying to free the girls but a
botched rescue mission would endanger them.
Dozens, possibly hundreds, have been
kidnapped since the Chibok attack.
Two weeks ago, gunmen abducted 172 women
and children from Gumsuri, 24km from
Chibok.
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