[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12115]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          BRING BACK OUR GIRLS

  (Ms. LEE of California asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, it has been three long painful 
months since nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped from their 
classrooms in Borno State, Nigeria, by the terrorist group Boko Haram.
  Since the kidnapping, these terrorists refer to these girls as slaves 
and threaten to sell them in the market.
  Congresswomen Wilson, Jackson Lee, and Frankel were brave and bold 
enough to visit Nigeria, and I thank them for continuing to beat the 
drum to bring our girls back.
  While some of these girls have escaped, tragically, more than 200 are 
still missing, and Boko Haram continues to terrorize villages across 
northern Nigeria and surrounding countries.
  Today, I stand here, as a mother and as a grandmother, to reaffirm 
our demand to bring our girls back and to make it clear that mass 
kidnapping and threat of human trafficking are human rights violations 
that cannot be ignored.
  Every child has a right to live. Every child has a right to receive 
an education in a safe and protected environment.
  Maifa Dame, Ruth Kollo, Esther Usman, Awa James are but a few of 
these girls being traumatized and terrorized by Boko Haram.
  We call on the international community, especially African nations 
and the African Union, to work together to find these girls and bring 
our girls back.

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