As Boko Haram attacks increase in northern Nigeria, millions of refugees fleeing the Islamist insurgent group are creating a strain on local resources, aid groups say. More than a million Nigerians have been displaced as they attempt to flee Boko Haram’s violent attacks, according to the International Organization for Migration. They have settled in various cities around northern Nigeria, leaving aid groups and the Nigerian government scrambling to keep up with the growing demand for food and supplies.

 With more than one in 10 of the world’s children living in areas affected by armed conflict, the United Nations children’s agency said Thursday that it is struggling to deal with “a new generation of emergencies.” Natural disasters, fast-spreading epidemics and conflicts “are stalking children in ways we have never seen before,” Afshan Khan, Unicef’s director of emergency programs, said in a statement accompanying an appeal for financial support.

The Atlanta Sister Cities Commission, a volunteer organization that helps coordinate Atlanta’s relationships with 18 world cities, partnered with the city’s Office of International Affairs to host the evening event, which attracted diplomats from Germany, Nigeria, France and many other countries. 

Last week state-owned China Railway Construction Corp. (CRCC) signed a lucrative contract with Nigeria to build an 870-mile coastal railroad from Lagos to Calabar, two of the West African nation’s leading cities. 

The China Railway Construction Corporation's eye-popping $12 billion deal to build an 870-mile railroad in Nigeria is the biggest single overseas contract in Chinese history and will boost the country's manufacturing sector just as its overall economy shows some signs of slowing. 

The Public Diplomacy Officer at the United States Consulate-General in Lagos, Mrs Rhonda Watson, said on Monday that no fewer than  4,000 Nigerians had,  so far, benefited from various US cultural exchange programs in the past 20 years. Watson told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that such Nigerians had benefited from the US Full Bright, Hubert Humphrey Programs and the International Visitor Leadership Program.

In the case of the Nigerian girls, they may eventually be rescued. But if they are, it won't be the result of hashtag diplomacy; rather, it will be due to strong and serious diplomacy conducted by brave men and women willing to confront evil head-on.