19
September 2014
Past Event
#WhereAreOurGirls? Escaped Schoolgirl Shares Her Account of Boko Haram Abduction

#WhereAreOurGirls? Escaped Schoolgirl Shares Her Account of Boko Haram Abduction

Past Event
Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C. Headquarters
September 19, 2014
19
September 2014
Past Event

1015 15th Street, N.W., 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Speakers:
Nina Shea
Nina Shea

Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Religious Freedom

Saa*

Student and survivor of Boko Haram abduction

Emmanuel Ogebe

Managing Partner, U.S. Nigeria Law Group

Last spring, Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram drew world headlines when it abducted more than 300 schoolgirls from a school in Chibok, in Nigeria’s northern Borno state. Despite the commitment of U.S. military assistance and global awareness through the #bringbackourgirls campaign, the vast majority of the kidnapped girls have not been freed and their fate remains unknown. However, some of the girls have managed to escape by their own efforts. A few of the escaped girls arrived in the United States recently to continue their studies with the help of scholarships.

Saa*, an 18-year-old student, is one of the Chibok schoolgirls who escaped Boko Haram. This was the first public appearance by any of those girls in the United States. International human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe recently concluded a one-month investigation into the suspected use of the Christian schoolgirls by Boko Haram in the rash of suicide bombings by young females reported this summer. Ogebe is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee's Subcommittee on National Security on Boko Haram's declaration of a caliphate in captured territories. On Friday, September 19th, Nina Shea, director of Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, moderated a panel with Saa and Ogebe to discuss the ongoing violence of Boko Haram.

U.N. and Nigerian officials report that more than 6 million Nigerians have been affected by the Boko Haram insurgency, with more than 300,000 displaced and thousands made refugees in Chad, Niger, and Cameroon. Hundreds of women and girls are believed to have been abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and enslaved through continual raids by Boko Haram on Christian villages. Untold numbers of Nigerian Christian men have been summarily killed for refusing to convert to Islam. Boko Haram’s attacks have increased substantially in frequency, reach, and lethality since 2010, and now occur almost daily and have spread to nation's capital and the predominantly Christian south. The U.S. State Department designated Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on November 14, 2013 and listed Boko Haram as the deadliest terror group in the world after the Taliban in 2013.

*Real name withheld

Related Events
07
October 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Understanding China’s Political and Institutional Foundations: A Conversation with Chenggang Xu
Featured Speakers:
Professor Chenggang Xu
Getty Images
07
October 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Understanding China’s Political and Institutional Foundations: A Conversation with Chenggang Xu

Join Dr. Miles Yu, senior fellow and director of Hudson’s China Center, for a conversation with Professor Xu on why misunderstanding China’s political order may create critical strategic risks for the US amid intensifying geopolitical rivalry.

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Professor Chenggang Xu
08
October 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Relearning Great Power Diplomacy: A Conversation with Wess Mitchell
Featured Speakers:
Wess Mitchell
A detail photo of “A Peace Conference at the Quai d'Orsay” by William Orpen. (Wikimedia Commons)
08
October 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Relearning Great Power Diplomacy: A Conversation with Wess Mitchell

Join Hudson’s Peter Rough for a discussion with Wess Mitchell on the future of great power diplomacy.

A detail photo of “A Peace Conference at the Quai d'Orsay” by William Orpen. (Wikimedia Commons)
Featured Speakers:
Wess Mitchell
09
October 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
How Promoting Freedom in North Korea Makes America Safer and Stronger
Featured Speakers:
Representative Young Kim (R-CA)
Greg Scarlatoiu
Sean Chung
Rose Jang
Hannah Oh
Moderator:
Getty Images
09
October 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
How Promoting Freedom in North Korea Makes America Safer and Stronger

Join Hudson Institute for a discussion on the connection between human rights in North Korea and US national security.

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Representative Young Kim (R-CA)
Greg Scarlatoiu
Sean Chung
Rose Jang
Hannah Oh
Moderator:
09
October 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
The View from Bucharest with Foreign Minister Oana-Silvia Țoiu
Featured Speakers:
H.E. Oana-Silvia Țoiu
Getty Images
09
October 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
The View from Bucharest with Foreign Minister Oana-Silvia Țoiu

With Peter Rough, Foreign Minister Țoiu will discuss Black Sea security, the war in Ukraine, Russia’s hybrid attacks, and Romania-US relations.

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
H.E. Oana-Silvia Țoiu