April 15 was an ordinary day for the girls of the Government Girls Secondary School in the Nigerian town of Chibok. Then gunmen arrived. After shooting the guards and setting fire to buildings, the dozens of Boko Haram Islamic terrorists abducted nearly 300 of the students and drove off. The girls have not been seen or heard from since.
A social media campaign with the hashtag #Bringbackourgirls started trending a few weeks ago and has been tweeted more than a million times. The trending topic has now made it’s way to the White House and President Obama (and his wife) wants to take a stand.
In a statement released this week, Obama said the U.S. will do everything to help Nigeria find the girls and the alleged terrorist.
“In the short term, our goal is obviously is to help the international community and the Nigerian government as a team to do everything we can to recover these young ladies,” Obama said during an interview. “But we’re also going to have to deal with the broader problem of organizations like this that… can cause such havoc in people’s day-to-day lives.”
“Obviously, what’s happening is awful and as a father of two girls, I can’t imagine what their parents are going through,” he said.
The United States is prepping to lend a hand by sending military and law enforcement personnel with extensive knowledge in hostage negotiation and victim assistance. Keep this campaign going by visiting change.org to sign the petition for the return of our girls and using the #bringourgirlsback hashtag on social media.