By Emma Dalton, staff writer
April 4, 2014. More than 200 girls were kidnapped from the Government Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria, by Islamic militant group, Boko Haram.
An anti-Western education group, Boko Haram, which was translated to “western influence is sin,” has been targeting schools since 2010, killing many students under western education.
In April, the girls taken from Chibok, a primarily Christian area, were sold and married to Boko Haram men and were forced to adopt Islam as their primary religion.
Another 12 girls were taken after the original kidnapping.
Leading up to the kidnapping, the groups attacks had intensified in 2014, as they raided villages, killing 100 Christian men. In February, 59 school boys were killed in an attack on the Federal Government College in northern Nigeria. Boko Haram has been blamed for about 4,000 deaths in 2014 alone.
Currently in January 2015, only about 57 of the 276 kidnapped girls have escaped or been found dead. Although they are believed to be living in camps outside of the borders they have yet to be located and brought home. The Times, Africa, estimates that there could be as many as 600 women being held in three camps outside of Nigerian borders.