10 Chibok schoolgirls 'stranded in US'

By Olarewaju Kola

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria

Ten Nigerian schoolgirls who escaped from Boko Haram two years ago and were later taken to the U.S. have been used to “solicit for donations,” a government minister said Friday.

Aisha Alhassan, the minister for women’s affairs, said the girls from the town of Chibok in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, moved to the U.S. in a “private arrangement” following their escape a few days after they were kidnapped in April 2014.

“These girls were among those that escaped from Boko Haram after their abduction,” she said at a news conference in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno. “Those who took them to the U.S. did so in a private arrangement.

“The federal government was not involved and we learnt these girls weren’t going to school over there. We waded in when we learnt the girls were being used to solicit for donations in the U.S. instead of the assurance to enroll them in schools.”

She did not identify the organizations involved.

More than 200 girls were snatched from their all-girl boarding school in an attack that drew international outrage. At least 57 escaped within days.

Yakubu Nkeki, the leader of a group of the girls’ parents, said 15 were taken to the U.S. by individuals and organizations after their parents were told they would be enrolled in American schools.

“We agreed to allow them go to the U.S. because those who took them pledged to enroll them in school but we found out they are stranded,” he said.