Parents of the 200 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped last April by Boko Haram members in Borno State have taken their case to the United Nations (UN) after losing hope that the federal government would rescue them.
A group lobbying for government action on behalf of the parents met with UN Women, the head of the UN representation in Nigeria and officials of the UN Office for West Africa last month.
The group has also appealed to UNICEF, campaign spokeswoman Bukola Shonibare said.
UN officials were not immediately available for comment.
“If the government cannot take action, we are asking for the UN to come in and help and if they reject, we just don’t know what to do,” Reverend Enoch Mark, leader of the parents, told Reuters. Two of his daughters were kidnapped.
It is not clear what any UN agency could do without Nigerian government approval.
More than eight months since the abduction of the girls from Chibok, in Borno State, parents say they are still in the dark about what the government is doing.
A presidential spokesman said efforts to free them continue, but that details of the missions are too sensitive to publish.
“The Chibok community is pained, we cannot take this anymore,” Dauda Iliya, spokesman for the Chibok community in Abuja, said at a New Year’s Day rally of parents, adding that they had written to the United Nations to “protest this neglect and nonchalance by the government.”
President Goodluck Jonathan says the government is trying to free the girls, but a botched rescue mission would endanger them.
Dozens, possibly hundreds, have been kidnapped since the Chibok attack.
Two weeks ago, gunmen abducted 172 women and children from Gumsuri, 24 kilometres from Chibok.