Chibok parents perish; Chibok schoolgirls still missing

Nigeria (Open Doors/World Watch Monitor) — Nigeria’s Chibok community is re-living the trauma of 2014.

In April of that year, Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls.

According to World Watch Monitor, stress has killed over a dozen of the girls’ parents since then.

Open Doors has worked closely with the Chibok parents over the past 18 months, including starting a worldwide writing and prayer campaign and providing trauma counseling.

Below are updates about the Chibok community, as shared in recent World Watch Monitor reports:

As Christians around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas with close friends and family members, the Christians in Chibok prepare for another Christmas without their girls.

World Watch Monitor spoke to Yakubu Nkiki Maina, the chairman of the Chibok Abducted School Girls Parents’ Association. His 18-year-old daughter, Maimuna, was among the more than 200 girls abducted from Chibok State Secondary School in April 2014.

Eighteen months after her kidnapping, he expressed the parents’ frustration.

Peter Pogu is as skinny as a reed. The tall man is bent over, and on his shoulders rests an invisible burden that seems to weigh as much as the world itself. It has been a year and a half since 14 April, 2014 when his daughter, Grace, phoned him at three in the morning from Chibok Secondary School.

“Our heads are hurting, and our hearts are hurting always. I am carrying my wife to the hospital, and they said she has high blood pressure. That is what is worrying her. And me also, when I hear something about these girls, my tears are coming out, even when I am among our brothers, when they talk about [the girls], and then my tears are coming out always.”

Pastor Ayuba’s daughter, Amina, was among the more than 200 girls Boko Haram abducted from the Chibok State Secondary School in April 2014. Since then, Boko Haram has also burned his church and looted all of his possessions, forcing him to seek refuge with family in a different area.

Some of the parents of the Chibok girls meet for trauma counseling with Open Doors International.
(Photo, caption credit Open Doors International via World Watch Monitor)

“Every day, we pray, morning, afternoon and evening. We declare fasting and prayer. So we fast that if it is the will of God, let them come out. If it is not His will, or if it is His will, let it be so. I have entrusted all to God. It is in the hand of God. Whether for good or for bad, she is in the hand of God.”

Nigeria is ranked #10 on the 2015 World Watch List of the 50 worst persecutors of Christians. Active in Nigeria for nearly two decades, Open Doors’ efforts include the following:

• Bible distribution
• Training and caring for new believers
  • Cross-cultural ministry training
  • Ministry skills training
  • Sunday school training
  • Development of curriculum
• Assistance to Christian schools
• Emergency support in crisis situations
• Holistic community development
• Trauma support
• Advocacy
• Implementation of socio-economic projects for new believers and widows of Christian leaders who have been killed

Help Open Doors provide trauma counseling.