Nigeria kidnap: Gunmen seize 140 schoolchildren in Kaduna state

AN OPEN LETTER TO ILHAN OMAR

As Vice Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Human Rights

YOU CAN HELP END SLAVERY IN AFRICA

We reach out to you to help free our brothers and sisters currently enslaved in Nigeria. As you may know, in Nigeria, terrorists are abducting, enslaving, and trafficking their fellow Nigerians. Many, like the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 — which inspired Michelle Obama’s “#BringBackOurGirls” hashtag — are Christians, but some are also Muslim. A large percentage are young women and girls taken and trafficked as slave concubines, like 17-year-old Leah Sharibu (pictured), kidnapped from her school in Dapchi. They endure horrendous abuse and physical mistreatment. The Christian girls are forced to convert to a religion not their own; Leah, for example, is still a slave because she chooses to remain a Christian.

We appeal to your commitment to fight for human rights for all peoples. We appeal to you because these girls are living in Nigeria as slaves to Boko Haram jihadists.

We believe that adding your voice to ours can help free those of our people who are in bondage and in fear for their lives.
We therefore ask you to:

1. Issue a public statement decrying the capture and enslavement of black Africans, whether Muslim or Christian, by Boko Haram jihadists in Nigeria.

2. Discuss with us plans to employ the power of the United States — by force or diplomacy — to emancipate these slaves.

3. Help us educate the American public about the plight of Nigerians, both Muslim and Christian, who are being slaughtered, enslaved, and trafficked by religious supremacists.

Signed:

Pastor Ayo Adedoyin
International Organisation for Peace-building and Social Justice (UK)

Dr. Oluwasayo Ajiboye
President, Mission Africa International

Stephen Enada
Co-Founder, International Committee on Nigeria

Mark Lipdo
CEO and President, Stefanos Foundation

The Venerable Dr. Samuel Orimogunje and Deborah Orimogunje
Archdeacon for Long Island in the Anglican Diocese of the Living Word

Dr. Gloria Puldu
President, LEAH Foundation

Suleman A. D. Sukukum
Conference of Autochthonous Ethnic Nationalities Community Development Association

Media contact:
Pastor Yakubu Bakfwash: yaksbakfwash009@gmail.com

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