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Fairfield Appalled By Kidnapping Of 200 Girls In Nigeria

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – As the United States prepares to send in specialists to help find nearly 300 missing teenage girls in Nigeria, Fairfield residents say they are hoping that more will be done to help.

For Fairfield resident Paul Wallimann, having the U.S. send in aid to find the missing girls in Nigeria is a great advance in the search.

For Fairfield resident Paul Wallimann, having the U.S. send in aid to find the missing girls in Nigeria is a great advance in the search.

Photo Credit: Alissa Smith

When asked about the kidnappings in Nigeria, most in Fairfield agreed that the situation is disgusting and incredibly sad.

“It makes me sick,” said Fairfield resident Emily Orben.

The 14-year-old girls were kidnapped in the middle of the night from their boarding school in northern Nigeria a little over three weeks ago. On Monday, the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram took responsibility for the kidnappings and announced in a video that it plans to sell the girls for $12 in the marketplace. 

“I think it’s horrible,” Paul Wallimann of Fairfield said. “Could you imagine if it was your children being taken?”

According to reports, the Nigerian government has accepted aid in the form of specialists from the U.S. government, although all of the details have not been made clear.

The decision by President Barack Obama to send U.S. send aid was “absolutely” the right thing to do, said Wallimann. He hopes the aid will help to find the girls quickly and safely.

“I hope the team is big enough and strong enough” to find the girls, Sharon Risley of Fairfield said. “I think it’s the right thing to do, but I hope it's enough.”

For Risley, the situation is extremely sad, especially as a mother. It “goes to my core,” she said, that the 14-year-old girls are could possibly be sold into sexual slavery.

“How is this happening in the year 2014?” Risley said.

Others, while hopeful the girls are found alive, are concerned it will be an unhappy ending after the girls have been go for so long. 

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