Activist Malala in Nigeria to campaign for ‘Bring Back Our Girls’

Malala, who escaped a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012, is to meet President Goodluck Jonathan later on Monday.

A photograph showing Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, second from left, blowing out candles with Nigerian girls while she was in Abuja campaigning for the return of schoolgirls kidnapped in Chibok. More than 200 girls are still being held by Boko Haram Islamist militants. Deji Yake/EPA

ABUJA, NIGERIA // Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai has urged Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to meet with parents of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram three months ago.

Malala, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012, was in Abuja on her 17th birthday to mark three months since Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from a secondary school in Chibok, in the northeast.

At least 219 of the girls are still missing.

“My birthday wish this year is ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ now and alive,” she said, using the social media slogan that has been picked up around the world to demand freedom for the kidnapped girls.

Mr Jonathan has not met with any of the kidnapped girls’ parents, nor with Nigerian activists who started the worldwide movement. He has drawn international condemnation for his government’s failure to quickly rescue the students.

In May, Mr Jonathan cancelled a planned trip to Chibok.

Soldiers and police prevented activists from marching to his presidential village in Abuja, the capital, to give him written demands the same month.

While in Abuja, Malala met with some parents of the kidnapped girls and some of the dozens of girls and young women who escaped the abduction. All have been begging the president to negotiate with Boko Haram extremists.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau put out a new video this week in which he repeated his demands that the government release scores of detained insurgents in exchange for the girls’ freedom.

“Nigerians are saying ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ and we are telling Jonathan to bring back our arrested warriors, our army,” he said in the video.

President Jonathan has so far refused to negotiate.

On Monday, Malala appealed to the Nigerian government to dedicate more money to education, to drastically reduce the hundreds of thousands of children who are out of school in the country – not just in the northeast area that is under a state of emergency and where Boko Haram has targeted schools, killing hundreds of students.

“We express our solidarity with you and we are with you, we are standing up with you in your campaign of ‘Bring Back Our Girls’, bring back our daughters because I consider these girls as my sister, they are my sisters,” Malala said at the meeting with parents.

“I’m going to speak up for them until they are released, and I’m going to participate actively in the ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ campaign to make sure that they return safely and continue their education.”

* Agency France-Presse and Associated Press