Former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell is “astonished” media coverage of missing airliner MH370 is so much more extensive than the fate of more than 200 missing schoolgirls in Nigeria.
Sutton Coldfield MP Mr Mitchell said the children were the future of Nigeria and the kidnapping was an “assault on all our values”.
Militants of Boko Haram – the nickname means “Western education is sinful” – are holding some 276 teenage girls abducted from a school on April 15.
Mr Mitchell said: “I think it is a very good contrast. Every day, quite rightly, we have seen the coverage on the hunt to find out what happened to the plane and find out what happened in this awful tragedy for the people who died on the plane.
“Britain has been part of that search with ships and submarines and so on, and that’s absolutely right.
“This is a very similar number of people and they are the future of Nigeria. This is an assault on all of our values, this kidnapping of so many girls on the threshold of making a real contribution to Nigerian life.
“Frankly, I am astonished the international press, the international media haven’t taken a far greater interest in this awful event than they have.”
