New Yorkers March From Harlem To Midtown, Rally In Support Of Kidnapped Nigerian Girls
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Dozens of people marched from a Harlem church to the Nigerian consulate in New York in support of captured Nigerian girls.
About 50 community activists carried signs reading ``Real men don't buy girls'' and chanting ``Bring back our girls'' Saturday.
They were headed to a prayer vigil and rally outside the Nigerian consulate in midtown Manhattan.
Organizer Iesha Sekou runs an anti-gun violence program in Harlem. She says her group is rallying because the girls were taken at gunpoint.
The kidnappings of more than 270 girls by the extremist group Boko Haram have prompted worldwide condemnation. The group claims to use Islamic teachings as justification for threatening to sell the kidnapped girls into slavery.
The Rev. Al Sharpton and Mayor Bill de Blasio have also become invested in the effort to bring the girls back WCBS 880's Jim Smith reported.
"When you take girls in Nigeria, you've taken them in New York," Sharpton said.
"We have to take it personally. We have to feel as if it was our own daughter," Mayor De Blasio added.
As 1010 WINS' Roger Stern reported, some of the protestors were from Nigeria.
"We are mourning, we are praying, and we are asking that our children will be set free from bondage," one woman said.
(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
You May Also Be Interested In These Stories