#BRINGBACKOURGIRLS MOVEMENT
PRESS RELEASE
14th April, 2026
Being the Text of a Statement Delivered by the #BringBackOurGirls Movement on the 12th Anniversary of the Abduction of Our #ChibokGirls
Today, 14 April 2026, marks twelve years since 276 of our daughters were stolen from the dormitories of Government Secondary School, Chibok, in the dead of night. Twelve years. A child born on the day of their abduction is today in secondary school. A generation has grown up in the shadow of a crime that has never been fully answered for.
When we first came out in the rain on 30 April 2014, driven by shared humanity and a demand for government to fulfil its most basic obligation to citizens, we could not have imagined that twelve years on, 83 of our girls would remain unaccounted for. We could not have imagined that 48 parents would go to their graves without knowing the fate of their daughters. We could not have imagined that Chibok itself would still be bleeding, that families would still be fleeing their communities, that children would still be being killed in weekly attacks.
Yet here we are.
THE STATE OF OUR GIRLS AND OUR COMMUNITY
83 #ChibokGirls remain missing. Some have died in captivity, yet there is no official confirmation and no identified graves. The testimonies of their sisters who witnessed their death have been ignored. Their families deserve truth. They deserve closure. They deserve more than silence.
Of those who have returned, the road to recovery is long and deeply personal. Some are rebuilding through education. Some are building livelihoods. Some married early and need economic empowerment. A handful are thriving quietly, still cautious of attention. Each story is different. Each girl is not a statistic but a human being with individual dreams, individual wounds, and individual needs.
Meanwhile, the Chibok community continues to face daily attacks by Boko Haram and ISWAP. Villages have been abandoned. Community leaders have been killed. Families have been displaced to Lagos and other cities, carrying their trauma with them, far from home but never far from the grief of what was taken, and justice that remains elusive.
THE NATIONAL PICTURE: A PATTERN OF IMPUNITY
Twelve years ago, the abduction of our #ChibokGirls was a shock to the conscience of Nigeria and the world. Today, it has become a template. What should have been a singular catastrophe that galvanised an irreversible national response instead became the opening chapter of an ongoing atrocity.
Since 14 April 2014, more than 80 additional school attacks have been documented across the Northwest and into the South. More than 1,800 school children and 64 teachers have been abducted. At least 184 school children and 15 teachers have been killed. The abductions have expanded to primary schools and Tsangaya schools. In the 4,383 days since the night our girls were taken, a school child has been abducted every two days and one killed every twenty days.
This is not just a security failure. It is a governance failure, a moral failure, and an indictment of a system that has repeatedly chosen impunity over accountability.
OUR DEMANDS
We therefore call on the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Borno State Government to:
- Provide an immediate update on efforts to rescue the 83 girls still missing, with specifics on operational strategies and timelines.
- Publish a comprehensive status report on the rehabilitation, reintegration, and education support provided to the rescued #ChibokGirls in the custody of the Borno State Government.
- Release all investigation reports commissioned by the Federal Government into the Chibok abduction, including the Sabo Report, and facilitate the arrest and prosecution of identified perpetrators.
- Provide a full account of all funds appropriated and disbursed for the welfare of the abducted #ChibokGirls and their parents over the past twelve years.
- Provide verified and compassionate disclosure to the families of girls reported to have died in captivity, as witnessed by their classmates and friends, so that parents may have closure.
- Ensure sustained psycho-social support for Chibok girls, their families, and displaced Chibok community members, including those now living in Lagos and other cities.
- Rebuild Government Secondary School Chibok to a functional, safe, and fully equipped institution, with electricity, clean water, ICT facilities, a library, and laboratories. The previous rebuilding was done with substandard materials and the facility has deteriorated again.
- Reinstate a 24/7 Situation Room composed of security forces and education sector stakeholders to coordinate real-time, declassified intelligence on abducted school children nationwide.
- Address the ongoing daily insecurity in Chibok and its surrounding communities as a matter of urgent humanitarian and national security priority.
- Extend adequate, personalised support to the returned #ChibokGirls that addresses their individual needs in education, livelihood, housing, and health.
OUR RESOLVE
Twelve years is a long time to wait for justice. It is a long time to carry grief without answers. It is a long time to advocate without the resolution that every family, every survivor, and every Nigerian deserves.
But we are still here. The #BringBackOurGirls Movement has not stood down, and we will not stand down. We are still marching, still advocating, still organising from Lagos to Chibok, still believing that justice delayed is not justice denied, as long as we refuse to be silent.
- We honour the 48 parents who passed on while waiting.
- We honour every family that has held on.
- We honour every returned girl who is rebuilding her life against extraordinary odds.
- We honour the 83 who are still out there, whose names we still call, whose faces we have not forgotten.
Our hope has endured for twelve years. Our demand remains unchanged: #BringBackOurGirls, Now and Alive!
Signed: For and on behalf of #BringBackOurGirls
14 April 2026