In the past couple of weeks media attention has been focussed on the tragedy that happened just off the coast of South Korea when a ferry sank with 476 people on board- the majority of which were school children. The media has been focussed on the family’s grief and anger at the government’s slow response to launch a rescue operation as well as what could have been done to prevent the catastrophe in the first place.
During the same time-frame another tragic event involving innocent school children took place in Nigeria: a school in Chibok was attacked, allegedly by the infamous extremist Islamic group Boko Haram, and 234 girls were abducted. Since the kidnapping very little has been done to find the missing school girls and little attention has been paid to the event in the media.
The girls were abducted from a school in Chibok, 80 miles from Maiduguri, the birthplace of the Boko Haram terrorist network blamed for the abductions.
What is Boko Haram?
Boko Haram literally means “western education is sinful” and is an Islamic jihadist militant and terrorist organization based in the northeast of Nigeria, north Cameroon and Niger. The organisation seeks to establish a “pure” Islamic state ruled by sharia law, putting a stop to what it deems as “Westernization”.
The group is known for attacking Christians and government targets: bombing churches, attacking schools and police stations, kidnapping western tourists, as well as also having assassinated members of the Islamic establishment. Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency has resulted in an estimated 10,000 deaths between 2002 and 2013.
Boko Haram is now violently campaigning to establish an Islamic Sharia state in Nigeria. Extremist attacks have increased in frequency and become even deadlier this year with more than 1,500 people killed so far, compared to an estimated 3,600 between 2010 and 2013. In a bid to gain back control in the north of the country the Nigerian government has imposed a state of emergency but as of yet no meaningful action has taken place.
Like the parents of the South Korean school children on board the capsized ferry, parents of the missing school girls believe there is very little chance of finding their daughters, believing that many of them will have been taken across the border into Cameroon. However the Nigerian government is under growing pressure to find the girls and extinguish Boko Haram’s bloody campaign as Nigerian citizens, both Christian and Muslim, are uniting in a bid to end the bloodshed that has rocked the country in recent months.
Boko Haram has a history of abducting girls and young women in attacks on schools, villages and towns but last week’s mass kidnapping is unprecedented. It is well known that the extremists use the young women as porters, cooks and sex slaves, according to Nigerian officials and the organisation Human Rights Watch; and it is these thoughts of what their daughters may be going through that plagues the parents of the school girls.
Rescue mission impossible…?
Furthermore parents have had to face the reality that a rescue mission will most likely prove fruitless. The hundreds of girls seized from the high school in Chibok were not in a central location where the government has a firm grip. The school is some 600 miles north from the capital of Abuja and where exactly the captors took the students is unknown- however the area where they are believed to be is remote and heavily forested and borders on Cameroon, which means that the captives and captors can slip through the borders into nearby countries, including Chad or Niger.
The large number of hostages also limits Nigeria’s options with regard to a military operation. Airstrikes have often been employed in the past however these may not be possible as they could kill captives in the process. The other option would be a ground assault however this would be a big risk as the terrain is unfamiliar and the army would be fighting against entrenched, well-armed fighters used to the heavily forested environment.
It is reported that in stark contrast to the government’s inept response parents have reached such levels of desperation that some of them have taken the situation into their own hands, forming militias and going off into the Sambisa forest armed with machetes in order to try to recover their daughters, despite warnings that the extremists are equipped with heavy artillery. Furthermore, fathers and mothers who marched into the jungle say they saw no trace of military presence in the area; no sign of any search and rescue operation, which has led to more criticism of the military.
As parents of the hostages wait to find out news about their daughters Nigerians of all background are putting pressure on the government to deal with the crisis in the north of the country in order to put an end to the violence and instability. Parents of the girls taken from the school are living their worst nightmares knowing their daughters have been abducted into a world of repression, violence and subjugation. Just as the authorities in South Korea must make sure that another maritime disaster does not happen so must the Nigerian government ensure that Boko Haram is prevented from launching future attacks.
Photo Credits: The Associated Press; The Guardian; Reuters; BBC