WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is joining all 20 women in the U.S. Senate in sending a bipartisan letter to President Obama condemning the abduction and mistreatment of more than 200 girls by a terrorist group in Nigeria. In addition, letter calls for additional international sanctions against the Boko Haram organization.
The letter comes after the U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution condemning the group’s actions. Boko Haram has threatened to sell the girls as slaves, and some may have already been sold into child marriages.
The U.S. State Department has already designated the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and has reported that it has links to al-Qa’ida. In their letter, the Senate women urge President Obama to press for both Boko Haram and Ansaru, an offshoot of the group, to be listed as al-Qa’ida associates by the United Nations Security Council, compelling a greater number of countries to join the United States and others in imposing their own sanctions.
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