Video obtained of missing Chibok girls

By VICTORIA DE CARDENAS

Tragedies in Africa rarely capture the attention of anyone in the U.S. But when women in Nigeria spoke out two years ago after terrorists kidnapped hundreds of girls from school, they stirred a sense of global outrage.

Two years later, #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign took off, but the girls from the town of Chibok are still missing and still causing outrage.

The captor, Boko Haram, forbids modern education, particularly for girls, and enslaves and sells women, forcing them to live by 7th century norm, according to CNN.

Before the anniversary of the capture, CNN obtained a video showing 15 of the more than 200 girls that remain in captivity from the mass abduction. It was sent by Boko Haram as “proof of life” in negotiations with the government.

While I applaud CNN for obtaining this video and sharing it with the parents of the girls, I have the issue that no other news station seems to be covering this as extensively as CNN.

If the social media campaign was so successful in shining light onto this tragedy, why aren’t other stories coming out of this video? It is a compelling video and reminds those who are here in the U.S. to continue to fight for human rights, but I do not see another major news network picking it up.

It upsets me to see these girls being taken against their will and choosing to be suicide bombers to get out of the situation they are in, but I have yet to see someone else cover this as headline news.

We as global citizens cannot be so oblivious to what is happening across the world and to prevent the oblivion it starts with news networks talking about the stories that matter and shape our everyday lives.