海角大神

When Jibrin Ibrahim helped start the Nigeria-based hashtag movement "Bring Back Our Girls" in late April, he had no idea it would leap Africa's borders to become a global icon, gaining the attention of, among others, US first lady Michelle Obama.

Mr. Ibrahim, who runs an NGO in Abuja, the nation's capital, was stunned at the scale of the kidnapping of nearly 300 girls by the extremist group Boko Haram. He was moved to action by the outcry of the mothers and fathers who came to the capital to protest the abduction of their daughters as they took school exams in the remote town of Chibok.

In a Monitor interview, Ibrahim comments that:聽

The result was a cyber-civic group whose hashtag, #bringbackourgirls, went viral in April and by May began to spawn street protests in London and New York.

聽After five years of insurgency and thousands of deaths at the hands of Boko Haram, Bring Back Our Girls is demanding the government better protect the people.

The unexpected intensity and breadth of the outcry pushed Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan to break what had been a full month of silence about the kidnappings and to acknowledge a problem. The concern about the scale of mayhem in Nigeria by Boko Haram spurred US President Barack Obama in his recent West Point address to announce plans for counterterrorism assistance to Nigeria and Africa.聽

Yet the movement emerged, Ibrahim says, not out of any grand design but out of simple resolve and persistence.

As the hashtag movement got attention, its steering committee started feeling they were part of some larger effort.

None of the Chibok girls have yet been found or rescued, and many in Ibrahim鈥檚 group say they feel exhausted. This week, as many as 91 more women and boys have been taken by Boko Haram, which says it wants to create an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria, where it operates. Separately, bombs went off Wednesday in a shopping mall in Abuja. That has brought some rallying in the ranks, says Ibrahim.

Ibrahim himself attended his first protest of any kind in 1969, demanding the reinstatement of his high school history teacher. The experience taught him that sometimes decisions must be challenged.聽

This spring, the kidnapping of the girls proved too large a human rights violation to ignore, though the Army has played it down: The day after the girls were abducted, the military claimed to have rescued all but nine of the girls.聽But the next day, the school principal told the press she wasn鈥檛 sure how many girls were abducted, but that none of them had been rescued.聽

The mothers' role

The Bring Back Our Girls campaign began two weeks later, when mothers of the victims planned a march on the capital to demand government action. 聽#BringBackOurGirls and #ChibokGirls began trending in Nigeria.聽 The mothers were joined by activists in red, carrying signs that said 鈥�#BringBackOurGirls.鈥�

Initially dubbed a 鈥淢illion Women March,鈥� the first protests attracted hundreds of people, jogging in the rain and singing 鈥淎ll we are saying is bring back our girls,鈥� to the tune of John Lennon鈥檚 鈥淕ive Peace a Chance.鈥澛�

The Bring Back Our Girls campaign approached lawmakers and leaders, bringing marches to security officials and the governor of Borno State, where the girls were abducted.聽 At every stop, officials greeted protesters with sympathy and promises.聽 Everything that could be done, they said, was being done and the girls would be rescued.聽 Even then, Ibrahim was skeptical. 聽聽

Two months later, activists still rally daily in Abuja, outside the Hilton Hotel by the 聽鈥淯nity Fountain," which bears聽the names of Nigeria鈥檚 36 states. The numbers are smaller now, and they bring chairs and mats to sit on. But the message remains: Inaction is unacceptable.聽

Robert Marquand in Boston contributed to this story.聽