A group of Montrealers gathered half a world away Sunday to make sure Nigerians know they haven't been forgotten.
As the world turned its attention to France during and after the Charlie Hebdo attack, Boko Haram has been on a killing rampage in Nigeria.
The extremist group, based in Nigeria, has been targeting civilians since 2009.
Last April, the group claimed responsibility for kidnapping more than 275 school girls. Some escaped, but many are still missing.
In January, it's believed 2,000 people were killed in one of the worst raids yet.
And on Sunday, news broke that hundreds of Boko Haram militants attacked a military camps in Cameroon near the border with Nigeria and kidnapped around 80 people, many of them children.
“Specifically they do target women, young women, and subdue them and kill them, they disappear so there is as well behind this crime a war against women,” said Beatrice Vaugrante of Amnesty International Canada.
The people who came together at Emilie Gamelin Park in Montreal Sunday afternoon focused on the tragedy as it has unfolded. Many in the crowd spoke about how international attention needs to turn towards Africa now, more than ever.
“You can't compare pain and suffering but this is equally dreadful compared to everything else that's been going on in the past few weeks and months,” said one person.
Amnesty International says Boko Haram has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity and it believes they’re responsible for the deaths of more than 4,000 thousand people in 2014 alone.
“We just want to be here to support the people to show them they are not alone even if we are far from them,” said Lauriane Ayivi from the Collective of Africans in Montreal.
While Canada listed Boko Haram as a terrorist group in 2013, Amnesty International says the violence will continue until the international community gets involved.
