Nigerian protesters march on parliament to call for immediate rescue of hostages abducted from Chibok by Boko Haram

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Nigerian protesters have marched on parliament to demand the government and military do more to rescue scores of schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamists more than two weeks ago.

Dubbed "a million-woman march" and promoted on Twitter under #BringBackOurGirls, the protest was not expected to draw a massive crowd and turnout was hindered by heavy rain in the capital Abuja.

But several hundred women and men, mostly dressed in red, marched through the rain towards the National Assembly carrying placards that read "Find Our Daughters".

Protest organiser Hadiza Bala Usman had earlier told AFP that the size of the protest was less important than raising awareness about the plight of the hostages whose abduction at gunpoint on 14 April from their school in the northeast has outraged Africa's most populous nation.

"The government has to understand that we are not going to allow this silence to continue," Usman said.

In the northern city of Kano, roughly 100 people dressed in black marched towards the state governor's office, calling for the girls' immediate release.

The mass kidnapping in the Chibok area of northeastern Borno state was one of the most shocking attacks in Boko Haram's five-year extremist uprising, which has killed thousands across the north and centre of the country.

Borno's government said 129 girls were taken and that 52 have since escaped.

Locals, including the principal at the targeted Government Girls secondary school in Chibok, have rejected those figures, claiming that 230 teenage students were taken and that 187 are still being held hostage.

Parents have voiced fury at the military's apparent rescue operation, accusing the security services of ignoring their daughters' plight.

Former World Bank vice president Obiageli Ezekwesili, also a former member of the Nigerian cabinet, has emerged as a leader of the #BringBackOurGirls movement and addressed protesters at Unity Fountain in Abuja as the march kicked off.

She accused the military of having no coherent search-and-rescue plan.

"We are going to the National Assembly because that is where each of these girls has a representative," she said.

Pogu Bitrus, leader of Chibok's elders forum, said it was "unbelievable" that the military, which claims to be working around-the-clock to find the hostages, had not yet tracked down any of the kidnappers.

Locals have scoured the bushlands of the remote region, pooling money to buy fuel for motorcycles and cars to conduct their own rescue effort.

Usman condemned what she called the official complacency that has followed the abductions.

"If this happened anywhere else in the world – more than 200 girls kidnapped and no information for more than two weeks – the country would be brought to a standstill," she said.

Boko Haram's name translates as "Western education is forbidden". The group has repeatedly attacked schools during an insurgency aimed at creating a strict Islamic state in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria.

The Islamists have set schools on fire, massacred students in their sleep and detonated bombs at university campus churches, but a massive kidnapping specifically targeting girls is unprecedented.

Usman said she had been promised that the house speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, and perhaps even the president, Goodluck Jonathan, will speak to the protesters.

"We have booked an appointment," she said. "We expect (both men) will come out and address us."

Jonathan has faced scathing criticism over his handling of the Boko Haram conflict, which has already killed more than 1,500 people this year.

Speaking by phone from Chibok, a father of one of the kidnapped schoolgirls voiced hope that protesters drawing attention to his nightmare near the seat of government could make a difference.

"We are poor with no influence whatsoever, which we believe is the reason the government does not care about our girls," said the father.

"We believe if Nigerians, the high and the low, raise their voices from different quarters it will make the government sit up and do the right thing to free our girls."