16 year old Aminatu was burning the midnight candle, literally, on that dark fateful night when Boko Haram terrorists stormed her dormitory and carted her and her class mates away. She was preparing for the O’ level physics exam which was scheduled to hold in the morning of April 15. Like the school boys who were massacred in their beds 2 months ago in Yobe, Aminatu did not understand what was happening to her. She could not understand why she was being driven away from school into the deep Sambisa forests by masked gun men who were firing shots into the air and chanting Allahu Akbar.
Last week, Aminatu's captors called her a slave and threatened to sell her or marry her off to strange men. They said Aminatu and her friends committed a sin by going to school. Her captors are being condemned around the world, but the evil lot, driven by misguided dreams of jihadist martyrdom are still holding her against her will.
If there is a specific criterion for an act to be called a crime against humanity, this has to be it. Slavery and sexual slavery under international law are savage crimes against humanity. The consequences of forced marriage can be absolutely devastating for a young girl like Aminatu. She has been denied the freedom of will and expression. She has been taken far away from school, beaten and terrorized. She and her friends had a willingness to learn but now their dreams have been truncated. The attack on Chibok girls is an attack on all girls in the world and on all people of good will.
In this terrible moment, in Chibok, we are all victims. What is done to one is done to all. The children we groomed and sent to school have been taken away from us. Aminatu and her classmates have been put in chains and passed around like objects among strange men. The shame and trauma belongs to all humanity.
Grace Foundation-Nigeria strongly condemns this act of terror and those who perpetuate it. We grieve with the families of the affected girls and boys who had been killed or kidnapped for going to school. We call on people of good will around the world to stand up together and put an end to this unconscionable act that has been committed against the human race. For Aminatu and the missing 234 girls and countng, freedom and daybreak should come now.
