ICP
Asks UN Status
of
#BringBackOurGirls,
Is Told
“Gov Working
On”
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 20 --
When the UN
announced on
very short
notice on
August 20 that
it would at
noon host a
briefing about
the seemingly
forgotten
girls
kidnapped in
Chibok, by
Ratidza
Ndhlovu the
head of
the United
Nations
Populations
Fund in
Nigeria, there
was an obvious
question to
ask.
What
has happened
to
#BringBackOurGirls,
which swept
through
Hollywood and
Nollywood and
the White
House but has
now waned and
been
superseded,
by Islamic
State and
ebola,
suicides and
downed
airliners?
Inner
City Press was
called and and
prepared to
ask the
question --
but got
cut off (see
below). After
a softball
question about
UNFPA's
dignity
kits and
psychological
support, Inner
City Press
thanked
Ndhlovu on
behalf of the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
and asked:
what is the
status of
finding or
even trying to
find the
girls?
Ndhlovu
said,
“the
government is
working on it.
As for the UN
as a family
we are
pre-positioning
for the girls
when they come
out, this is
the
role of the
UN. The other
part is for
the government
to take care
of.” Video
here.
Nice
role, that.
Inner City
Press asked
the UN
spokesman if
Ban Ki-moon's
envoy on the
issue Said
Djinnit, since
moved to the
Great Lakes,
has
been replaced.
“There will be
a replacement
if there
hasn't been
one already
for the head
of the West
Africa Office”
was the
answer.
Like we said:
forgotten.
This
spokesman had
called on
Inner City
Press -- but
allow the
first
question to be
taken or
“reclaimed” by
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
a group whose
Executive
Board tried to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN.
There have
been no
reforms;
in anything
UNCA, now the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance, more
aggressively
demands the
first question
at such
briefings, and
then usually
offers
up a softball
question of
the type the
UN likes. But
the turning
away
from
#BringBackOurGirls
cannot be
disguised,
even by
censors.
, 
