An HBO Documentary About The Kidnapping Of The Chibok Girls Will Premiere Later This Year

In 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from their school in Chibok, Borno State, and hid them in Sambisa forest for the next three years. For those three years, the world was united in the cry to bring them back home. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls became a global campaign that featured everyone including Michelle Obama and Malala Yousafzai, and governments offered their help in the rescue efforts.

Tuesday, May 8 2018, marked the the one year anniversary of the release of 82 of the Nigerian schoolgirls – the largest number released at once. In total, 176 girls have been reportedly rescued, but about 100 girls are yet to return home.

Telling the harrowing tale of their captivity and survival is the HBO documentary Stolen Daughters: Kidnapped By Boko Haram. The documentary will give us a look at the current lives of the freed girls, who were taken to a secret government safe house in the capital of Abuja upon their release. The film will showcase how the young women are coping and adjusting to life after their kidnapping and captivity and how the Nigerian government is dealing with their return to society.

The girls are required to live in a protected environment, where they have minimal contact with the outside world. Stolen Daughters: Kidnapped By Boko Haram will also chronicle reunions with family members they have not seen since their abduction.

There are still 100 Chibok girls missing, and Boko Haram has taken even more girls. But the outrage, both locally and internationally, is no longer there. As usual, we – the world – have become desensitized to the suffering around us. Hopefully, Stolen Daughters can do its part in reminding us that there are people in pain, and the fact that we cannot see it, cannot see them, does not mean that it’s not happening. And we should not be quiet.

Stolen Daughters: Kidnapped By Boko Haram was directed by Gemma Atwal and Karen Edwards,( also credited as producers) and executive produced by Fiona Stourton, Sam Bagnall and Nancy Abraham. The documentary is a co-production between BBC2 and ARTE France. No info on a release date or a trailer as of yet. But we’ll keep you posted.