Chibok Schoolgirls Kidnapping - 10 Years Later

Chibok Girls, April 2014

Ten years ago, 276 girls were abducted from their school in Chibok, in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, by the terrorist group Boko Haram. The kidnapping was part o f a larger raid led by Boko Haram, a terrorist group The kidnapped girls, most of whom were Christian, were taken to Boko Haram’s stronghold in the Sambisa forest, where they endured harsh conditions and were subjected to Islamic instruction sessions lasting up to 11 hours a day.

The #BringBackOurGirls movement garnered support from celebrities and activists worldwide, yet efforts to rescue the abducted girls saw limited success. Faced with few alternatives, the Nigerian government shifted its approach towards negotiating with the militants. With the assistance of mediators, a deal was brokered, resulting in the release of 103 of the abducted girls between 2016 and 2017. This initiative was accompanied by controversial amnesty programs, allowing former Boko Haram members to reintegrate into society after undergoing rehabilitation in camps. As attention waned, the Chibok girls gradually slipped from the headlines.

Many of the women who remained in Boko Haram had married into the group. Though many of them highlight the fact that they were not necessarily "forced" to join, they faced undeniably harsh pressures. Those who agreed to marry were granted privileges such as better nutrition, housing, and sometimes even slaves (many of whom were their former classmates). The married women moved deeper and deeper into the forest, making them harder to locate.

Indeed the #BringBackOurGirls movement might as well be labeled a failure. Since 2021, twenty women have been rescued, or have emerged from the forest, bringing 31 children with them. However, these are not the same women who disappeared a decade ago. Nearly 100 of the Chibok natives are still missing, and while it's safe to assume some of them may have died from natural causes such as childbirth, snakebites, that would likely account for only about 20 of them. Most of the freed women are widows, though seven of them did bring their partners or husbands, and they all live in a communal house in Maiduguri, where the government provides for them. The decision has angered many of the women's families and the general Nigerian public; their tax money is being used to support the former militants to live with the very women they kidnapped ten years ago.

It's safe to say, the legacy of these women serves as a catalyst for a conversation regarding how we talk about the ways our government spends money. What makes something worth being government funded? How do we move forward from impact? How do we decide when someone is still a victim, and when they have assimilated? While some may argue that a decade within the group would make someone a member, rather than a hostage, I would argue that we'll never know. In a perfect world we would be free from the pressures that force these girls to define their narratives a certain way, however our reality remains far from that.