Ten years have passed since Nigeria's most infamous mass kidnapping when Boko Haram fighters seized 276 girls from their school in Chibok. AFP gained rare access to the town for the anniversary of the 14th of April 2014 attack, which sparked global outrage and rallied people around the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign.
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00:00 A decade has passed since fighters of the Boko Haram Islamist group kidnapped Mary's
00:07 daughter.
00:08 Yet she believes Margaret will come home one day.
00:11 "I am very happy to see her.
00:15 I am very happy to see her.
00:18 I am very happy to see her.
00:21 I am very happy to see her."
00:26 Margaret is one of the nearly 100 girls still missing after Boko Haram stormed a boarding
00:31 school in Chibok town in northern Nigeria ten years ago.
00:35 On April 14, 2014, 276 schoolgirls were brutally seized while at school to pass an exam.
00:43 Most of them were Christians between the ages of 12 and 17.
00:48 The destruction at the Chibok secondary school is enduring evidence of the violence of the
00:53 attack.
00:54 "These are the junior staff quarters which were burnt by insurgents on April 14.
01:01 And also all these are junior staff quarters.
01:04 You can look behind, also near that mango tree are the classes, the junior classes,
01:09 but all it was demolished.
01:11 It was destroyed and burned down by the insurgents."
01:16 Grace was 17 when she was taken, and because she refused to marry a Boko Haram fighter,
01:21 was forced to work as a slave.
01:24 The memory of her time in the Sambisa forest where the group kept the girls still haunts
01:28 her.
01:29 "I was forced to work as a slave.
01:30 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:31 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:32 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:33 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:34 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:35 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:36 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:37 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:38 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:39 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:40 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:41 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:42 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:43 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:44 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:45 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:51 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:52 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:53 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:54 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:55 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:56 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:57 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:58 I was forced to work as a slave.
01:59 I was forced to work as a slave.
02:00 I was forced to work as a slave.
02:01 I was forced to work as a slave.
02:02 I was forced to work as a slave.
02:03 I was forced to work as a slave.
02:04 I was forced to work as a slave.
02:05 I was forced to work as a slave.
02:06 I was forced to work as a slave.
02:07 I was forced to work as a slave.
02:08 I was forced to work as a slave.
02:09 I was forced to work as a slave.
02:11 AFP gained rare access under military escort.
02:15 Even though the Nigerian army has regained control of large areas once held by Boko Haram,
02:21 insecurity is on the rise elsewhere in the country, as well as kidnappings.
02:25 On March 7, 2024, gunmen seized over 130 children from their school in the northwestern state of Kaduna.
02:35 Things like mass kidnap of school children that we thought used to be a thing of the past
02:39 is coming back in a fast pace into national consciousness.
02:43 So things that used to happen in 2014 with Chibok, 2018 with Dapchi, 2020 with the Kankara Boys Abduction,
02:49 we used to take spaces, you know, it's not coming back in full force.
02:53 More than 1,680 pupils have been kidnapped in Nigerian schools from early 2014 to the end of 2022,
03:02 according to the charity Save the Children.
03:05 For the Chibok survivors, authorities have not lived up to their promises.
03:10 I was forced to work as a slave.
03:14 I was forced to work as a slave.
03:16 I was forced to work as a slave.
03:18 I was forced to work as a slave.
03:20 I was forced to work as a slave.
03:22 I was forced to work as a slave.
03:24 I was forced to work as a slave.
03:26 I was forced to work as a slave.
03:33 I was forced to work as a slave.
03:36 Boko Haram opposes Western-style schooling,
03:39 and a decade on, many survivors are still trying to make up for their lost education.
03:45 Back in 2016, Amina Ali was the first to escape Boko Haram insurgents
03:51 with her four-month-old baby girl after two years in captivity.
03:55 Amina is now enrolled at the American University of Yola,
03:59 where she studies mass communication.
04:01 And despite the trauma of her own experience,
04:04 she strives to help victims of the conflict.
04:07 I just want to be an example to others,
04:12 to let them see that although this happened to me,
04:17 I didn't give up.
04:18 I'm still working hard and trying my best to be something.
04:25 The war still rages on and has left over 40,000 people dead
04:31 and two million others displaced in northeast Nigeria,
04:34 creating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
04:38 It is also affecting education throughout the African nation,
04:42 which endorsed an International Safe Schools Declaration in 2015.
04:46 The UN, however, estimates that 20 million children remain out of school in Nigeria,
04:52 where the ordeal of the Chibok girls remains embedded in the minds of its people.
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