Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Call for UN to act over hostage girls

Call for UN to act over hostage girls

A leading Nigerian rights group is urging the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Islamic extremists who abducted 276 schoolgirls, saying concern and condemnation are not enough.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project said it is time for the council to “act decisively”. The cost of inaction is “too high to contemplate”, they said.

It comes as more experts are expected in Nigeria to help in the search, including US hostage negotiators.

Nigeria’s government belatedly accepted offers of help this week from the United States, Britain, France, China and Spain amid mounting national and international outrage at its failure to rescue the girls abducted by Boko Haram militants from a north-eastern school on April 15.

The militants are threatening to sell the girls into slavery.

The call for action adds to the growing condemnation by Moslems in Nigeria and abroad against the Boko Haram terrorist network and its acts.

Former Nigerian military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida urged the country’s Moslems to rise up against the extremists sullying the name of Islam.

“Islam enjoins you to live peacefully with fellow human beings . . . Therefore, anybody who will come and smear our name, all Moslems should kick against that. Moslems should also do everything possible to stop this continued blackmail against the religion of Islam. We must prepare to fight it,” he said in an interview.

From Doha, Qatar, the International Union for Moslem Scholars condemned “the terrible crimes offensive to Islam” and said the actions of Boko Haram “are very far from Islamic teachings”.

It called on Boko Haram to immediately release the girls, saying that threats to sell them into slavery are against Islamic Shariah law.

Boko Haram has said it wants to enforce Shariah law across the entire country though Nigeria’s population of 170million is divided almost equally between Christians and Moslems.

Shariah is pursued to varying degrees in most northern states.