Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families. It’s time to #BringBackOurGirls. -mo pic.twitter.com/glDKDotJRt
— The First Lady (@FLOTUS) May 7, 2014
First Lady Michelle Obama spent part of her Mother’s Day weekend speaking out against the abduction of more than 200 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria, on April 14. “As the mother of two young daughters,” Obama took over the president’s weekly radio address Saturday to encourage prayers and support for the girls.
“Let us show just a fraction of their courage in fighting to give every girl on this planet the education that is her birthright,” she said in the video below of her address.
President Obama pledged military and other governmental support to help free the girls. Abubakar Shekau, head of the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram, took responsibility for the kidnappings.
More than 900,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org appealing to international leaders that says:
“We express our concern and solidarity with the kidnapped girls and ask the world not to forget them. We support all efforts to ensure their safe return, and ask the Nigerian Government to ensure all schools are safe places to learn, protected from attack.”
