Learners from Ntsika Secondary School will today participate in a protest march against the abduction of over 300 Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants in Africa's most populous country.
Learners from Ntsika Secondary School will today participate in a protest march against the abduction of over 300 Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants in Africa's most populous country.
The march will start from the school premises and head west towards town.
By the time of going to press, Rhodes lecturer, Judith Reynolds, had committed to encouraging the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) and Rhodes students to get involved in a solidarity protest.
Boko Haram seized nearly 300 schoolgirls on 14 April, before vanishing into a dense forest in northern Nigeria. A few girls escaped, but Nigerian officials say an estimated 276 remain captive.
The militants have admitted abducting the girls and have said they would sell them as trophies and slaves, a boast that has provoked wide-spread condemnation across the world.
The Nigerian government has offered US$300,000 (R3m) for information leading to the return of the girls, while the United States (US) government has sent special investigators and hi-tec equipment to help in the search.
The US officials, however, believe the abducted girls could already be outside Nigeria, and in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad or Niger.
Boko Haram is a militant Islamic group that has been fighting to overthrow the government of Nigeria for the last five years.
It operates mainly in northern Nigeria and is infamous for the brutality of its attacks on civilians.
