The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has revealed that 91 of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted in 2014 remain in captivity or unaccounted for, a decade after the mass kidnapping by Boko Haram.
In a new inquiry report released after a two-week mission to Nigeria in December 2023, CEDAW noted that survivors continue to suffer trauma, stigma, and lack of access to proper support services. The delegation visited Abuja, Adamawa, Borno, Enugu, and Kaduna, where they met with government officials, security agencies, and victims of abductions.
The report stated: “Nigeria is responsible for grave and systematic violations of women’s and girls’ rights amid multiple mass abductions. The state’s failure to protect schoolgirls and others from abduction amounts to serious and systemic violations.”
Of the 276 girls kidnapped from Chibok, 82 escaped on their own, while 103 were freed between 2016 and 2017 through prisoner exchanges. At least 91 remain missing. The committee also highlighted that over 1,400 students have been kidnapped from schools across northern Nigeria since 2014, many subjected to forced marriage, sexual violence, trafficking, and prisoner swaps.
CEDAW documented accounts of harsh conditions in captivity, including forced conversions, beatings, starvation, rape, and childbearing under duress. Even after release, many survivors face rejection and stigma, with limited access to education, counselling, or rehabilitation.
Committee chair Nahla Haidar stressed that the Chibok abduction was not an isolated event but part of a broader decade-long pattern of mass kidnappings targeting schools and communities. She urged the Nigerian government to urgently pursue the rescue of the remaining Chibok girls, strengthen school security, support survivors, and criminalise abduction and marital rape nationwide.
The full report, with recommendations for Nigeria, has been published online.
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