Jangebe: Tears, confusion as kidnapped Zamfara schoolgirls remain captive

Humaira Mustapha made no effort to wipe away the tears rolling down her cheeks, as she spoke about her two kidnapped daughters. “Whenever I think about my daughters I’m filled with indescribable grief,” Mustapha told AFP.

Seated against the plastered mud wall of her bare sitting room, her tears left damp spots on her navy blue hijab (Islamic veil). Hafsa and Aisha, 14 and 13 respectively, were among the 317 schoolgirls abducted by gunmen from their hostels in an all-girls boarding school in the Zamfara state’s remote village of Jangebe.

“Whenever I serve food to their younger sister, tears keep flowing from my eyes because I keep thinking about the hunger and thirst they are going through,” said the 30-year-old mother of three. But she only serves her daughter.

“I can’t eat since the abduction,” she said. “I’m appealing to the governor to do everything to rescue our daughters who are facing real danger to their lives,” Mustapha added. “As a mother, my anguish is crushing me.” Vanguard