CNN anchor Isha Sesay will be live from Abuja on CNN International, Monday to Thursday at 5, 7, 8.30 and 9 p.m. CET.
(CNN) — More girls have been kidnapped in Nigeria, village residents told CNN, saying that armed men in vehicles abducted eight from Warabe village, which is in the northeast of the country. The Reuters news agency is reporting the kidnappings, citing an unnamed police source and a Warabe resident.
Residents said the gunmen moved from door to door late Sunday and took the girls, who are between 12 and 15 years old.
The latest abductions come amid international outcry over the April 14 kidnapping of hundreds of girls by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
On Tuesday the United Nations human rights chief blasted Boko Haram and sent a stern warning to the terrorist organization that U.S. officials say is trained by al Qaeda affiliates. Under international law, slavery and sexual slavery are “crimes against humanity,” she said, according to a statement from Rupert Colville, the spokesman for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.
London joins campaign for kidnapped girls Kidnapper: I will sell them in the market
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Map: Where the girls were kidnappedMap: Where the girls were kidnapped
“The girls must be immediately returned, unharmed, to their families,” the statement urged.
Since Pillay visited Nigeria this year, Boko Haram’s actions have “grown increasingly monstrous,” the statement said.
A man claiming to be the group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, appeared Monday in a video announcing he would sell his victims. The video was first obtained by Agence-France Presse.
“I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah,” he said, according to a CNN translation from the local Hausa language. “There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.”
Boko Haram’s name means “Western education is sin.” In the nearly hourlong, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for an end to Western education.
“Girls, you should go and get married,” he said.
In her statement, Pillay condemned the “violent abduction” of the girls.
According to accounts, armed members of Boko Haram overpowered security guards at a school in Nigeria, yanked the girls out of bed and forced them into trucks. The convoy of trucks then disappeared into the dense forest bordering Cameroon.
Pillay has contacted Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and urged the government to take all necessary measures to ensure that the girls are freed, her statement said.
Pillay, along with three other African United Nations women leaders, sent a letter reminding the Nigerian government of its “legal responsibility to ensure that girls and boys have the fundamental right to education and to be protected from violence, persecution and intimidation,” according to her statement.
Nigeria’s finance minister said Monday that her country’s government remains committed to finding the girls, but should have done a better job explaining the situation to the public.
“Have we communicated what is being done properly? The answer is no, that people did not have enough information,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told CNN’s Richard Quest.
It’s difficult to release information about the search for the girls, she said, “because you are dealing with people that you don’t know, and you don’t know … what they might do to these girls.”
The kidnapping has sparked international outrage, much of it expressed on Twitter with the globally trending hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.
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Journalist Aminu Abubakar reported from Nigeria, and CNN’s Ashley Fantz wrote this report in Atlanta.
They took 8 more this morning and are threatening to sell them. These ignorant barbaric baffoons!!! Why black people must brutalize their own is beyond me!!!
It seems like Nigeria needs help in getting rid of Boko Haram
Good day..I think so too. I also think they need to look deep into the president n his first lady. It took him 3 weeks for Gods sake to held a press conference about the girls. He doesn’t seem to care much or he has a hidden agenda. I
don’t know..its jus sad!
Something seems strange in this whole debacle…I bet the west will be down there sooner than the Nigerian Gov. can assist their own while wheeling a basket of free democracy.
Very insightful of you Candy. There’s never smoke without fire. Democracy on it’s way to deplete whatever natural resource recently located. Last year when they had the Find Kofi campaign, it was actually oil that was found and they needed a reason to galvanize us gullible masses to invade Africa. I was a bit slow in recognizing this one so good job!
I saw this morning makes me wonder if this was a oil rich country if US forces wouldn’t b there already??? Hmmmmm I’m just gonna watch n see how it plays out most importantly PRAY for the girls
Nigeria is full of corruption so it hard fi stop the militants and wid all the oil , poverty still rampant so I hope this is not a conspiracy because fi hide 200 people nuh easy
I really hope the Obama administration helps before it’s too late. Bill Clinton who I truly like as a president..made the mistake of not payin much attention to the genocide in Rwanda until it was too late *crying*…My heart hurts for the girls. Plz send help Jehovah.
Why? because obama black? lolol. “America doesn’t negotiate with terrorist” therefore, they will not intervene. You will NEVER see American forces in an African nation…they may send in mercenaries but they will not fall into another position like they did in Somolia- Black Hawk down.
Met u sent me to do some research ur right they are oil rich but I guess it does not look beneficial to the US so no rush. Thanks Met
@Chuet, I believe they are # 3 in oil. Nigeria is a kleptocratic society so the weatlh doesn’t trickle down, nor sideways. These muslims up inna de north are and have always been slave catchers and a thorn inna de Nigerian govt. ass.
America will never rush to these nations because they help to create the problems in these nations…a oil rich country of ‘niggers’ enjoying nirvana is a no-no. Then again…I find that we own is worst than any white government.
Greed is a bitch and a bunch of dysfunctional Muslims is cherry on top. Nigeria have to deal with this issue once and for all…it will be a massacre if they so chose to address these bastards. Sadly, those girls are gone.
Hey PP yeah I went reading ur so right on a lot well all ur points it’s very sad to see the pain blacks induce on black and the US is a great manipulator in there quest for riches n domination
@Foxy
A lot of things makes no sense to me..
1. why would they draw so much attention to themselves in kidnapping so many girls at once?
1b. why would they need to kidnap them in the first place?? (they say is to sell them as brides..uhhmk) I suppose these ‘husbands’ are living in some deep caverns where only men inhabit where they cant meet women natural way.
2. it would take some intricate planning an logistics to steal and store these living breathing, screaming women without notice.
3. why is the so called leader so outspoken about his capture of the girls ( he sounds like he’s reading from a bad script). ” I abucted your girls.I will sell them in the market, by allah!”
Now tell me…That make sense to unnuh?!?!?
but of course there will be a cry for the west to come aid the Nigerian government..aren’t these leaders of their own countries capable of handling their own countries affairs??? They are never given a chance at the slightest disturbance you hear the fools run out asking for whichever u.s president in power to help. Its a terrible cycle which threatens the power of leaders across the world and people are blind to it.