Amnesty International, a human rights organisation, has called on governments at all levels to prioritize the rescue and reintegration of girls who have suffered insurgency into the society.
Barbara Magaji, program manager, Amnesty International, made the call at a programme organised by Amnesty International to illuminate the challenges faced by girls on Friday in Abuja.
Ms Magaji said that the programme was in commemoration of the 2024 International Day of the Girl Child with the theme “Girls’ Vision for the Future”.
She added that the programme engaged girls to speak for girls by empowering them to lend their voices to the campaign for the reintegration of girl survivors of insurgency in the North-East.
She said that girls from different secondary schools in the FCT are demanding that the government should attend to those girls who have faced these violations.
“Part of our agenda for this year is to push for reintegration of the girls and young women who have had all types of violations through the terrorists across the country“Our advocacy is for government not to forget them. Some of them have come back with children who are tagged children of terrorists and some are still there.
“So our call to government is to ensure that they reintegrate them back into the society to take care of them to ensure that those who still want to be educated are educated and ensure other provisions like health.
“Some of them left as girls, some of them have come back as mothers. So it is important that government addresses this and attends to their needs,” she said.
Ms Magaji said that Amnesty International was also using the event of the Girl Child Day to advocate for an end to harmful practices like breast flattening, genital mutilation among others against girls.
“At Amnesty International, we value every child, the girl child as much as the boy child. But the girl child faces different unique challenges, so this is a day to bring those challenges to the limelight.
“This is not only about their challenges, we also want to celebrate their wins, their potentials and that is why we have invited girls from different schools to celebrate them,” she said.
(NAN)
