13 May 2014 Graca Machel, widow of the late South African leader Nelson Mandela, has broken her silent mourning with a letter expressing support for the missing girls and requesting their safe return.She stated that she broke the restrictions of her mourning because silence is not an option. She added however, that she knew that Madiba would understand and approve.
TimesLive SA quotes her as saying “I am a parent and so I stand amongst you holding your hands, in pain and anguish; in solidarity.”
She added “”If the world can mobilise all the means possible to search for a plane carrying 239 passengers, certainly it can also mobilise the means to find our girls.” “We demand alongside you, the parents, that the Nigerian government do everything in its power to locate all the girls, make sure they are safe, and bring them back home,” she wrote, addressing the parents.
She added a final message of hope to the girls by saying “We pray for them and look forward to the day when they will embrace their parents and families at home.”
This message comes after the President and First Lady of the United States, Barak and Michelle Obama, expressed both their support and sadness over the missing girls. In an unusual move, the First Lady delivered the President’s weekly presidential address to express her sadness over the situation and is quoted as saying “In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters. We see their hopes, their dreams, and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now.”