From The Daily Telegraph via Times Live

Three months after its schoolgirls vanished into the clutches of Boko Haram militants, Chibok has become the town that never sleeps.

For the mothers of those missing from this dusty northern Nigerian town, nightfall is a time when rest is impossible, when three hours of fitful dozing is the most one can hope for. And for the fathers it is a time for around-the-clock-vigils, patrolling the edges of town in case of yet more attacks.

With Nigerian security forces now belatedly stationed around Chibok there should be no need for neighbourhood watch duty. Yet, two weeks ago, in a sign of how thin the government’s writ still runs, Boko Haram attacked two villages only 10km away, killing more than 30 people and razing four churches.

“We have no idea when they might suddenly attack again,” said Henry Wasi, 46, whose 16-year-old daughter is among the 223 girls still missing.

“My wife is praying every day at the church because she knows it is now only God who will bring back our girls.”

It was not supposed to be this way. Until recently it was not the Almighty that Chibok’s residents were pinning their hopes on but a social media campaign called #bringbackourgirls, which aimed to galvanise the Nigerian government into action by highlighting around the world the plight of the girls.

Backed by everyone from Angelina Jolie to Michelle Obama, it sparked demonstrations across Nigeria and the wider world, and pledges of assistance from Britain, France, Israel and the US – all desperate to stop Boko Haram’s cackling leader, Abubakar Shekau, making good on his videotaped promise to sell the girls off as “bush wives”.

Read more at Times Live