When the Islamist terrorists of Boko Haram snatched 276 girls from their school dormitory in the northeast Nigeria town of Chibok on the night of April 15, 2014, it sparked outrage – and a global social-media campaign.
#BringBackOurGirls began life as a tweet by Ibrahim Abdullahi, a Nigerian lawyer, but it swiftly spread beyond Nigeria, involving famous names such as Michelle Obama and Malala Yousafzai. Interviews with anguished parents clutching photographs of their kidnapped daughters soon featured on news pages and screens around the world.
But while the campaign drew worldwide attention to the girls’ plight and to the growing extent of Boko Haram’s presence, it had some unfortunate consequences.
