Girl kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2018 school raid still held captive 3 years on

Leah Sharibu taken hostage aged 14 from boarding school in February 2018

Leah Sharibu’s family members hold banner to demand she is released at event to mark her 16th birthday in Abuja in Nigeria in 2019 (AFP via Getty Images)

A schoolgirl kidnapped by Boko Haram is still being held captive three years after the Nigerian Islamist group’s abduction took place.

Leah Sharibu was taken hostage at the age of just 14 from a boarding school in Dapchi in Yobe State Nigeria alongside 19 other girls in February 2018.

Campaigners say Leah, who is now 17-years-old, is the only girl who has not yet been returned to her family following the raid and continues to be held captive.

The International Organisation for Peace & Social Justice, which champions peace-building efforts in Nigeria, said she is one of thousands of women and children who have been “abducted, killed, injured and sexually assaulted” due to rising violence in Nigeria.

More than 1,000 kidnapping incidents are recorded in the west African country each year but there are undeniably many which are never reported to the authorities, the charity states.

Ayo Adedoyin, the chief executive of the organisation’s UK branch, called for the British government to invest more energy into demanding Leah is released.

He added: “Leah Sharibu was abducted by Africa’s deadliest terrorist group, Boko Haram. Leah is one of Nigeria’s ‘luckier’ victims, by virtue of the mere fact that she is still alive, and in May this year she will become an adult.

“For girls her age around the world, this time in life means a discovery of self. Not so for the hundreds or thousands of innocent young women held captive across Nigeria by brutal terrorist gangs, with no signs of their whereabouts for their families to digest, and no sign of their lengthy ordeals coming to an end.”

He noted that three years - the stretch of time Leah has now been held captive for - is a substantial amount of time in a formative period of a woman’s life.

“She’s spent the equivalent 78 two-week Covid quarantines, or nine four-month lockdowns, in the hands of terrorists,” Mr Adedoyin added. “If the UK fails to stand up for its values of religious freedom, peace and institutional justice on the world stage, no one will.”

He called for people to raise attention to Leah’s kidnapping by using the #SpeakUpForLeah hashtag on social media.

Mr Adedoyin added: “Incremental pressure from the UK government could influence President Buhari to do more. The fight for Leah is a fight for our free and peaceful civilisation, nothing less”.

The kidnapping of Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram back in 2014 drew international condemnation around the world.

Militants placed 276 girls in trucks after raiding a school, with dozens able to flee in the immediate hours after they were abducted, but in 219 girls being confirmed as missing at the time.

It is one of many raids carried out on schools by militants, the latest suspected attack taking place this month on a boys’ secondary school in Kagara.