Rose Daniel, 17, was one of some 270 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria last month. In the image above, her mother holds up a photograph of her abducted daughter – a poignant reminder of her loss.
Around seven weeks since Islamists took the girls, who were at secondary school in the remote northeastern village of Chibok, more than 200 are still missing.
In the picture above, Chiroma Maina holds a photograph of her abducted daughter Comfort Amos, as she sits next to her husband Jonah and her daughter Helen.
In the picture above, Chiroma Maina holds a photograph of her abducted daughter Comfort Amos, as she sits next to her husband Jonah and her daughter Helen.
Comfort was among those seized by Islamist militants when they stormed the school outside Chibok on April 14, carting girls away in trucks.
More than 50 abductees have since escaped but at least 200 remain in captivity, as do scores of other girls kidnapped previously.
What’s more, according to a Reuters count, since the mass abduction at least 470 civilians have died violent deaths in various locations at the hands of Boko Haram, who want to create a breakaway Islamic state in religiously-mixed Nigeria.
A band of traditional hunters (some of whom are pictured above) have volunteered to help search for Boko Haram. The local government gives them two meals per day, according to members of the vigilante group.
A band of traditional hunters (some of whom are pictured above) have volunteered to help search for Boko Haram. The local government gives them two meals per day, according to members of the vigilante group.
Meanwhile, the drive to find the missing girls is taking place on a grander scale.
Nigeria has accepted help from the United States, Britain, France and China and around 80 U.S. troops have started arriving in neighbouring Chad to start a mission to try to free the girls.
Surveillance drones are scanning the Sambisa forest, where parents say the girls were last sighted.
But rescuing the abductees is anything but simple. The forest covers 60,000 square km (23,000 square miles), more than twice the size of Rwanda, and the rebels know the terrain intimately.
Boko Haram literally means “Western education is a sin” in the northern Hausa language, and its militants have killed hundreds of teachers and students.
Boko Haram literally means “Western education is a sin” in the northern Hausa language, and its militants have killed hundreds of teachers and students.
But even as instability wracks the region, girls in the image above continue to attend an Islamic school in Nigeria’s Borno state, the epicentre of Boko Haram’s violent campaign.
