National Geographic | Nina Strochlic | April 22, 2020
EVERY MAY, THERE’S a party in northeastern Nigeria to celebrate a unique anniversary: the release of more than 100 young women from captivity. In 2014, 276 girls at a boarding school in a village called Chibok were kidnapped from their dorms by the militant group Boko Haram. They became known as the “Chibok girls.” Today, the survivors are supposed to be studying in a college prep program on the campus of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), in the hot, dusty northeastern city of Yola. Instead, they’re back home in their villages under lockdown for coronavirus.
Last year, photographer Benedicte Kurzen and writer Nina Strochlic joined the day-long “Release Day” celebration. In the courtyard of a building that serves as their dorm and classrooms, the students performed songs, skits, and readings. “Five years ago evil came to Chibok town with the intent of robbing these young ladies of their dream of an education,” said Reginald Braggs, an American who runs their program, in opening remarks. “Today they are relentlessly pursuing their dreams with a determined drive to excel and achieve.” (Read about the 276 schoolgirls and where they are now here.)
One year after Braggs’ upbeat speech, circumstances for the girls are again grim: Coronavirus cases are rising and so are attacks by Boko Haram militants.
In late March, AUN was given three days to shut down and evacuate all students and faculty. Many of the AUN students who were sent home are able to take classes and final exams online—but the students from Chibok live in remote villages with little connectivity. They were sent with homework and assignments to keep them on track, says AUN President Dawn Dekle.
When normal life resumes in Nigeria, Release Day will be celebrated again. “Our focus was packing up, arranging transport to send the young women home, plus the rest of our student body,” says Dekle. “It was a very busy three days but we got it all done.”
As of April 22, Nigeria reported nearly 800 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 25 deaths related to the virus. None are in the northeast where AUN is located. But the cases are steadily rising and country’s health system is ill equipped for large-scale testing and treatment. The economy teeters on the edge: Under lockdown, the 80 percent of Nigerians who work in the informal sector are being driven deeper into poverty.
“Should the virus reach the northeast there would be numerous challenges to responding,” says Gillian Walker, the emergency manager for UNICEF in Borno state, the epicenter of a decade-long insurgency. Among these challenges Walker cites is the presence of Boko Haram militants, whose attacks have become increasingly brazen as the country focuses on COVID-19. In late March, nearly 50 soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram ambush in the state of Yobe—not far from where the students from Chibok are now living.