America’s first lady Michelle Obama will deliver her husband’s weekly radio address this weekend to draw attention to the plight of the kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria.
As the UN security council on Friday night expressed outrage at the abductions by Islamist militants and demanded their immediate release, a White House spokesman confirmed that Mrs Obama would be making the address ahead of mother’s day, which is on Sunday in the US .
“As the mother of two young daughters, Mrs Obama is taking up the opportunity to express outrage and heartbreak the president and she share over the kidnapping,” White House deputy spokesman Eric Schultz said.
“The first lady hopes that the courage of these young girls serves as an inspiration… and a call to action for people around the world to fight to ensure that every girl receives the education that is their birthright”, he added.
Boko Haram kidnapped more than 250 girls from a secondary school in Chibok in remote northeastern Nigeria on April 14 and has threatened to sell them into slavery, while eight girls were taken from another village earlier this week.
The abductions has drawn international condemnation and promises of special forces assistance to find the girls from the US and UK.
In a statement, the UN security council said: “The members of the Security Council expressed their intention to actively follow the situation of the abducted girls and to consider appropriate measures against Boko Haram,” the 15-member council, which includes Nigeria, said in a statement.
US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said the security council should act quickly to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist group.
“We’re working with Nigeria in the security council to secure urgently needed UN sanctions (on) Boko Haram,” Power posted on Twitter. “Must hold its murderous leaders to account.”
Boko Haram’s five-year-old insurgency is aimed at reviving a medieval Islamic caliphate in modern Nigeria, whose 170 million people are split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims, and it is becoming by far the biggest security threat to Africa’s top oil producer.
The security council statement “demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all abducted girls still in captivity and further expressed their deep concern at statements made by the alleged leader of Boko Haram threatening to sell these girls as slaves.”
It also condemned the latest big Islamist attack in Nigeria, the killing of 125 people on Monday when gunmen rampaged through a town in the northeast near the Cameroon border.
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