{"id":29159,"date":"2020-02-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/mp-writes-to-uk-prime-minister-to-highlight-continued-captivity-of-leah-4558\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:56:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:56:50","slug":"mp-writes-to-uk-prime-minister-to-highlight-continued-captivity-of-leah-4558","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/mp-writes-to-uk-prime-minister-to-highlight-continued-captivity-of-leah-4558\/","title":{"rendered":"MP writes to UK Prime Minister to highlight continued captivity of Leah Sharibu"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/89904d610ae7b3fe19817508920f0e66.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>David Linden MP has <a href=\"https:\/\/davidlinden.scot\/update\/leah-sharibu-two-years-in-captivity\">written to the UK Prime Minister<\/a> calling on the British government to do everything in its power to help secure the release of Christian schoolgirl <a href=\"https:\/\/csw.e-activist.com\/page\/24945\/action\/1?ea.tracking.id=campaign&#038;_ga=2.23947132.776115085.1582016020-1865228035.1548068956\">\u8389\u5a05\u00b7\u6c99\u91cc\u5e03<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The<a href=\"https:\/\/davidlinden.scot\/update\/leah-sharibu-two-years-in-captivity\"> letter<\/a>, dated 19 February, was written to mark the second anniversary of the abduction of Leah Sharibu, along with 109 other girls, from her school in Dapchi, Nigeria, by the Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) faction of Boko Haram. While all of her surviving classmates were subsequently released, Ms Sharibu was denied her freedom for refusing to convert as a precondition for release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Linden writes: <b><i>\u201cThe context of Ms Sharibu\u2019s continuing captivity provides clear evidence that she has been held captive because of her religious beliefs\u2026 It is a terrible indictment of the Nigerian government&#8217;s failure to assist a vulnerable citizen, and of an international community that has not held it sufficiently to account for this.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Linden adds in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EWxrdi-5cxY\">video message<\/a>: <b><i>\u201cWe will work tirelessly to ensure that Leah is back with her family where she belongs. We\u2019ll do that through prayer, we\u2019ll do that through campaigning, because ultimately we know that chains can be broken.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yesterday, Ms Sharibu\u2019s mother Rebecca joined <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/2020\/02\/19\/%e6%8c%89\/4557\/article.htm\/\">a protest<\/a> organised by CSW outside the Nigerian High Commission in London, where she delivered a petition with 12,132 signatures calling on the Nigerian government to take action to secure Leah\u2019s release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CSW\u2019s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said: <b><i>\u201cWe welcome this letter from David Linden MP, and every effort made to draw international attention to Leah\u2019s case. We continue to call on the Nigerian government to do everything in its power to secure Leah\u2019s immediate and unconditional release, and urge the international community to assist wherever possible.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Linden MP has written to the UK Prime Minister calling on the British government to do everything in its power to help secure the release of Christian schoolgirl Leah Sharibu.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43296,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[156,152],"class_list":["post-29159","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-nigeria","regions-sub-saharan-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39743,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29159\/revisions\/39743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29159"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}