Three weeks after more than 300 girls were kidnapped from a school in Nigeria, Canada is stepping forward to help in the search.
This week Canada offered to provide Nigeria with surveillance equipment and technical expertise, after the country reached out for Canada’s help.
The U.S. announced it would also send military personnel and law enforcement officials to assist with the investigation of the mass kidnapping of the schoolgirls last month.
Social and mainstream media have been instrumental in getting word out around the world about the atrocity, which is linked to an Islamic insurgency led by terror group Boko Haram who have been terrorizing the country and its government for years.
The group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and threatens to sell the girls into slavery.
Parents and families of the girls have been bold and unwavering in their protests to urge their own government to take action and find the girls, taken from their secondary school in the country’s remote northeast April 15. More than 300 girls were taken, but 53 managed to escape, leaving 276 who are still missing and in captivity.
The kidnapping has sparked international outrage and demands that the Nigeria government do everything necessary to find the girls before they are sold, harmed or worse. In this day and age, it’s hard to believe that people, or planes for that matter, can just disappear.
That being said, several countries are still searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing two months ago.
The intensive hunt has covered almost 4.64 million square kilometres of ocean and used more than 33 search flights, with no results.
In recent weeks, Canada has also waded into the crisis in the Ukraine.
Canada has sent six fighter jets as well as military personal to help NATO allies show their support for the Ukraine after Russia took over Crimea and threatened the country’s eastern border.
Let’s hope the entire world throws its support and wealth behind Nigeria and its plight to help bring these young innocent girls home to safety.
- Williams Lake Tribune