'Million woman protest march' proposed in response to abduction of Nigerian school girls

Frustration and anger over the Nigerian government's response to the abduction of approximately 200 school girls has led to calls for a "million woman protest march." On Wednesday, the Women for Peace and Justice Organization announced plans to hold the protest march, walking through the capital city of Abuja to the National Assembly. Organizer Hadiza Bala Usman explained that the marchers hope to pressure the Nigerian government to dedicate more resources to find the missing girls, whom they believe were abducted by Islamist militant group Boko Haram. "For how long are we going to wait for the government to help us? We can't bear it anymore ... We just want the government to help us, we want the world to hear this and help us," said a woman from Chibok, the town in Borno State where the girls were abducted from their school. A local official said Tuesday that some of the abducted girls may have been trafficked to neighboring countries and forced to marry militants. Frustration following the mass abduction on April 18 was compounded by conflicting reports regarding both the number of missing and false reporting by the military that the majority of abducted school girls had been released.