© RIA Novosti
The mass abduction by heavily armed insurgents from the Chibok area of Borno state late Monday came just hours after a bomb ripped through a packed bus station on the outskirts of Abuja, killing 75 people, the deadliest attack ever in the capital.
The bombing was also blamed on Boko Haram, a group whose five-year extremist uprising has shaken Africa's most populous country and top economy.
"They took away my daughter," said one woman from Chibok, who like several parents requested anonymity given the uncertain fate of the children.
"I don't know what to do," she told AFP, urging the government to find the kidnappers. "They should not allow our daughters' dreams to be shattered by these murderers."
A father who said his daughter was taken in the attack described the ordeal as a "nightmare."
"The whole town is in mourning," he said from Chibok.
The gunmen stormed the Government Girls Secondary School after sundown on Monday, torching several buildings before opening fire on security forces guarding the school, AFP reports.
Boko Haram, whose named means "Western education is forbidden", has repeatedly attacked schools and universities in an insurgency that has killed thousands of people since 2009.
Intensifying violence in the group's northeastern stronghold has forced school closures across the region.
As a parent of a young girl I can't even bring myself to 'imagine' what pain, terror and sense of complete helplessness these parents must be going through knowing how their daughters are probably being treated......and NOTHING CAN BE DONE TO STOP IT. Even if you don't believe in God, please pray to him regardless.....the world needs as many prayers as it can muster-up right now. Things are going to get a 'hell' of a lot worse before they even start to get better. This is just the beginning.....of the end. With everything that is going on in the world right now, I still can't believe there are SO many that are in complete denial of everything. "Ignorance is bliss", there's no denying that, but the 'bliss' has now turned to a very obvious 'blah'.