On February 19th, 2018, a sect of Boko Haram attacked the idyllic village of Dapchi in Yobe State, abducting 112 children from the Government Girls Science and Technical College, including a boy and a girl who were not students. Exactly 30 days later, 105 of the abducted girls and the boy were returned, leaving one girl in captivity, and five dead. While efforts by the federal government has led to the release of the Dapchi girls, fears have remained in the community, especially with respect to sending girls to school. The particular school in which the abductions happened have since been shut down indefinitely, with parents withdrawing their wards from schools altogether. UNFPA assured the Permanent Secretary of continuous support and agreed to visit each ministry to carry out due assessment to determine how best the agency can respond optimally to the challenges.
The Permanent Secretary then presented to UNFPA, a document policy on Yobe State Social Reform Agenda, (YOSERA 2018), which is the state development plan which is designed in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), adding that technical support will further enrich the subsequent implementation plan of YOSERA document, and for which UNFPA would be offering its technical support for the implementation.
‘This will be strategic in our inclusion of the SOP on mass abductions which we plan on developing from our experience and response.’
