The heartbroken parents of 200 Nigerian schoolgirls who remain missing following their April 2014 kidnapping have appealed to the United Nations for help, Reuters reported Friday.
Nigerian government officials say they are continuing efforts to recover the schoolgirls who were kidnapped April 14 by Boko Haram militants from their school in the Borno state village of Chibok.
But after eight months of waiting, false alarms and no clear word on the government's rescue mission, a group of parents have turned to the U.N. to help bring about their return.
"If the government cannot take action, we are asking for the U.N. to come in and help and if they reject, we just don't know what to do," the Rev. Enoch March, the father of two kidnapped girls, told Reuters.
The parents have already met with U.N. Women, the U.N. Office for West Africa and the head of the U.N. representation in Nigeria, Reuters reported. However, it appears no action can be taken by the agency without the approval of Nigeria's government.
President Goodluck Jonathan and his administration have long been accused of taking a lax approach to rescuing the girls from Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group that for years has carried out abductions, killings and other acts of terror in an attempt to form an Islamic state in the north. Their name translates to "Western education is sinful."
In May 2014, Nigeria's military announced it knew where the abducted schoolgirls were but did not carry out a raid out of fear of retaliation from the rebels. A deal was also reached between the government and the militants to release the girls, but it was scrapped at the last minute.
"The Chibok community is pained, we cannot take this anymore," Dauda Iliya, spokesman for the Chibok community in the capital Abuja, said at a parents' rally on New Year's Day, Reuters reported.
Several had already written to the U.N. to "protest this neglect of nonchalance by the government," Iliya said.
Jonathan said they are working on freeing the girls but any hurried rescue mission could put their lives in danger, Reuters reported.
At his New Year's address, the president vowed to defeat Boko Haram, which has kidnapped scores more women and children since April.
"I want to assure you that the terrorists will not get away with the atrocities. They will not win," Jonathan said according to the BBC.