World Youth conference seeks rescue of kidnapped Nigerian girls 

Colombo: Dozens of delegates at the World Conference of Youth 2014 Friday urged the Nigerian government and the international community to rescue the kidnapped schoolgirls in the west African country.

The young delegates protested the Nigerian government’s failure to take action over abduction of 234 schoolgirls by extremist Islamic group Boko Haram last month in Chibok, Nigeria, Xinhua reported.

Claiming the girls as “slaves”, the group threatened to sell them “in the market” and “marry them off”.

“Three weeks have gone since the kidnap happened,” shouted a delegate. “This is not an issue of Nigeria, but a crisis of the world.”

The terror incident has already drawn condemnation and pledges of help from the international community as the victims’ families and the Nigerian people demand the group return the girls unharmed to their communities.

“It is a peaceful march of young people to find their responsibilities of the conference to do something meaningful and sent a message to the international community,” said Aya Chebbi, a delegate from Tunisia, holding a piece of paper that read “Bring back our girls”.

“The incident was not a local issue,” Aya said. “It is not only about Nigeria, it is about girls all over the world… We want to use this case to talk about their rights of security, rights of education and rights of going to school safely.”

Tolulope Daramola, a delegate from Nigeria, told Xinhua that they “just want to say that these girls are not animals, they are human beings”.

“We want the international community to rise up and do something. It’s simple,” he said.