Washington, May 10 (IANS): US First Lady Michelle Obama appeared on Saturday on the White House weekly address to express her outrage over the recent kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria.
“Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I are outraged and heartbroken over the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls from their school dormitory in the middle of the night,” Obama said in the address.
The schoolgirls were seized from their boarding school April 14 at night in the town of Chibok in the country’s north-eastern Borno state.
Speaking ahead of Mother’s Day Sunday, she said that the girls reminded her and her husband US President Barack Obama of their own daughters.
“This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education,” she said.
“And I want you to know that Barack has directed our government to do everything possible to support the Nigerian government’s efforts to find these girls and bring them home,” Obama added.
Barack Obama May 7 said his administration will do its best to help Nigeria find the abducted girls.
The Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the abduction of the schoolgirls.
In a video released earlier this week, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau threatened to “sell” the students as he said they should not have been in school in the first place and instead get married.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language, began its insurgency in Borno state in 2009.
Obama also cited the example of Pakistani schoolgirl and campaigner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot and wounded by the Taliban for speaking out for girls’ education.
“The courage and hope embodied by Malala and girls like her around the world should serve as a call to action,” Obama said.
Earlier this week, she tweeted a picture of herself in the White House holding a sign with the message “#BringBackOurGirls”.
People around the world have also showed their support for the girls by taking part in protests and joining online campaigns in social networking sites calling for their rescue.
