TheCable

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl shot in October 2012 for her activities in advocating the rights of women to education, will arrive Nigeria on Sunday to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan in a bid to reignite calls for the rescue of the Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram nearly three months ago.

Before leaving Britain, where she has been living since the failed effort to kill her and her father, Yousafzai, speaking with The Telegraph, spoke about the heartbreak of seeing her “sisters” languish in the detention of terrorists.

“When I heard about the Nigerian girls that were abducted, I felt that it was my sisters that were imprisoned,” she said.

In the face of dwindling global interest in the rescue of the girls, Yousafzai emphasised the importance of continued public condemnation of the abduction, saying this is the way to prevent recurrences.

“I think that we should not remain silent. And this is my feeling — that if we remain silent about it, this will spread; it will happen more and more. If we want to stop it, then we have to speak,” she said.

“And I am already very sad when i think that so many days have passed and these girls are in that hard situation. So I think we should take a step and we should think [about] how to solve this issue.”