Date: 2015-04-14
Speaker: CAROLYN B. MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

Mr. Speaker. I rise today to ask for a moment of remembrance for the girls of Nigeria. I believe. and people all around the world believe. that we can and should do more to bring our girls home. the girls who have already suffered so much. Late on the evening of April 14. in the northeast corner of Nigeria. young girls were attending a governmentsponsored secondary school when they heard gunshots. Soon after. they saw men on motorbikes entering the school compound. The men told them that they were policemen. but they were lying. The men gathered all the girls together. some 276 of them. They were mostly Christian girls between the ages of 16 and 18. Then more men came. fighters. and the one guard ran away. The men began shouting. and the girls realized that they were captured by Boko Haram. As most know by now. Boko Haram is a homegrown Islamist insurgency. Roughly translated. their name means. "Western education is forbidden." In the eyes of the men. the girls had committed a grave sin of seeking an education. According to a report by Human Rights Watch. the birthplace of Boko Haram is Borno State in northeastern Nigeria. a place of great poverty. Estimates by Human Rights Watch suggest that more than 7.000 civilians have died at their hands. and the fatalities are just part of the horror. To the anguish of the girls families. some meet a fate even worse than death. Women and girls abducted by Boko Haram are forced to marry insurgent fighters. converted to Islam. and endure beatings and psychological abuse. forced labor. and rape in captivity. and the terror will last a lifetime. The terror group has now abducted more than 500 young women and girls since 2009. Back in Nigeria that night. some of the terrified girls were forced into a truck and taken away. Others marched into the jungle. That night and the coming months a handful of them57 of themescaped. and reports are that some of them have died. Now. after nearly a year of inaction. the Nigerian Army along with forces from Chad. Niger. and Cameroon have mounted an offensive against the terrorists and have retaken territory. but still the Nigerian Army says they have no clue where the girls are. As I speak. there are over 200 frightened. abused. and desperate girls somewhere in the jungle hoping against hope that they are not forgotten. Today. April 14. marks 1 year since the girls were taken. 1 year in captivity. 1 year in terror. Though I am glad to see that Nigerias immediate neighbors have begun providing assistance. I believe it is time for us to call on all African leaders to do more. to come together. to provide resources. to provide manpower to unite and fight against Boko Haram. We here in America have a role to play. I encourage everyone to do whatever they can. small or large. to bring our girls home and to keep the pressure up. Consider for a moment how thousands of terrorists who comprise ISIS and Boko Haram have had such success in recruiting people from distant lands to pledge their lives to their murderous cause by using social media platforms. Well. we are the people who created social media. and we are the billions. Can we not do better than them. pursuing a cause of mercy. not murder? Let us. the billions. overwhelm their hate with our hope. Lets defeat their violence with our vision of a better world. I hope you will consider that you will do one small thing to help. Consider joining one of the global schoolgirl marches taking place across the world on this day. Tweet out your call to bring our girls home. Post something on Facebook. or you can join me in the purple and red ribbon campaign of remembrance. Tonight the Empire State Building in New York City will light up in red and purple in remembrance of the girls. Purple is the color of violence against women. red of bring back our girls. There will be a march from the United Nations to the Empire State Building to thank them for remembering. Let each of us find some way that we can help to bring these girls home. If we dont. the violence will continue. If you dont stand up and fight back. they will continue abducting. murdering. raping. and killing young girls. I call upon everyone to do what they canparticularly. the African leadersto stand up and fight back against Boko Haram.