Nigerian Abduction Survivor Afraid to Return to School
Shiena Iane Bernardino | | May 12, 2014 01:50 PM EDT |
One of the girls who managed to escape from the group of rebel extremists that kidnapped more than 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria said that the abduction was too petrifying for words, and that she is afraid to return to school.
The 19-year old Sarah Lawan, a science student, spoke as Nigerians collectively prayed Sunday for the well-being of the remaining 276 students who are still in captivity. Pope Francis joined them in prayer.
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Pope Francis, through his @Pontifex Twitter account, used the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls to encourage the entire world to join him in praying for the speedy release of the girls.
Lawan told the media that more girls could have escaped from their abductors, but the fear of being shot held them back. The schoolgirl spoke using Hausa, her local language, during a phone interview held in her home in Chibok, the same site where the mass abduction was held.
Lawan said she is hurting over the fact that the other girls could not muster enough courage to escape, and that she cries every time she encounters the parents of those girls and sees them shedding tears.
Authorities said 53 students managed to escape from their captors.
The entire nation of Nigeria and the international community were outraged at the government's failure to rescue the remaining abducted girls a month after the incident happened. A week ago, Nigeria was forced to accept other countries' offers to help in searching for the girls after weeks of refusing assistance in handling the crisis.
Boko Haram, the Nigerian terrorist cell and the group responsible for the kidnapping, was threatening to sell the remaining girls into slavery.
Reports also say the terrorists were forcing the girls to marry them, and some were brought across borders into neighboring countries like Chad and Cameroon.
When asked about going back to school, Lawan said that the thought frightens her, whether it is in the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School where she and the girls were abducted or in a different school. Yet she knew that she had to overcome that fear if she wants to pursue her plans to study law.
Lawan is on her final year, and was supposed to take her last exams before the abduction happened.
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