As the days in captivity dragged into years, they became witnesses, and often victims, of unspeakable brutality that they chronicled in secret diaries. But when hostage talks and military intervention failed, the schoolgirls were forced to take survival into their own hands. Their tweets launched an army of would-be liberators – American soldiers and drones, Swiss diplomats, spies and glory hunters – into an obscure conflict in a remote part of Nigeria that had barely begun to use the internet. Within hours, the campaign had been joined by millions, including some of the world’s most recognizable people: Oprah Winfrey, Pope Francis, David Cameron, Kim Kardashian and Michelle Obama. The hashtag called for the release of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls who’d been kidnapped by a little-known Islamic terrorist sect called Boko Haram. In the spring of 2014, an American hip hop producer unwittingly triggered an online hurricane with a quickly thumbed tweet featuring a four-word demand: #BringBackOurGirls.
‘Everyone should read the testimonies of the Chibok girls who survived the capture’ Malala
‘Had me gripped from the outset’ Fergal Keane
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