Boko Haram Tag

Some of the Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram have been freed, but their vale of tears has not ended with their liberation. There are tragedies so deep, suffering so vast, that it's hard to know what to say in the face of them. Certainly it's hard to know what to do, even for those who try to help. These are young women and in many cases young girls who were initially subjected to the trauma of kidnapping. Then they were raped over and over again, sometimes by different men or sometimes by a particular man who maintained he was that girl's husband. They were kept prisoner, harangued, indoctrinated, and often became pregnant and bore the children of their captors. For them, even the process of being freed was devastating, violent, and sometimes resulted in the death of some of the captives during the melee. And now that they are free, they are further restricted---to special camps run by the Nigerian army---and ostracized from society.

Back in June when we last covered Boko Haram, the group was recovering from a series of losses with a new propaganda push aimed at dispelling rumors about the insurgency's slow implosion. Boko Haram rallied soon after, and surged once again outside of Nigeria and into neighboring countries, resuming their campaign of terror. The American Foreign Press reports that earlier this week the terror group abducted 135 people and killed 8 during a village raid in northern Cameroon. The move into Cameroon from the group's base territory in northeastern Nigeria is part of a surge in the group's terror activity in neighboring countries. More from AFP:

The insurgents also shot dead nine fishermen in a village near the shores of Lake Chad in northeastern Nigeria, amid heightened violence region-wide since Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's was sworn in in May. More than 800 people have been killed in just two months in a surge of Boko Haram attacks, which began after Buhari took office on a pledge to defeat the militants.

Last month, international investors aired their concerns about how instability in Nigeria could shift what was once a balanced and successful economy into dangerous territory. The country had just ousted their incumbent President, and replaced him with a man claiming a serious commitment to ending the rise of Islamic extremism; but the promise of political overhaul wasn't enough. Coalition forces claimed multiple victories over Boko Haram, eradicating their hideouts and rescuing hostages; yet attacks on citizens living in the embattled villages of northeastern Nigeria continued. Terror remains the norm, and yesterday, residents of the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri woke up to find their world on fire. A band of Boko Haram militants attacked the city with bombs, and executed a suicide bombing that took the lives of at least 20 people. It wasn't the first attack on Maiduguri, and it certainly won't be the last: late last month, newly elected President Muhammadu Buhari declared the city the headquarters in the war to curb the Islamic uprising. Boko Haram may be under fire, but when it comes to the business of terrorism (i.e., creating terror), they continue to make headway, and their new efforts at distributing propaganda have cast doubt on just how effective coalition efforts to eradicate the group have been.

Earlier this week, I wrote on reports that the Nigerian military had managed to rescue hundreds of women and girls from now-defunct Boko Haram camps in northeastern Nigeria. Good news like that doesn't come along every day---but maybe today is just a good week for hope, because almost 200 more women and children have been rescued in the Sambisa Forest area. The 200 "Chibok" girls of #BringBackOurGirls fame do not appear to be among those rescued, but reports have not yet confirmed that. More from CNN:

"We are still working to verify the actual number of the rescued hostages, but I can say they include around 60 women and 100 children," said army spokesman Sani Usman. A female hostage and a soldier were killed during the rescue operation at Sambisa Forest, a base for the Islamist extremists. Troops are moving into other parts of the forest and have destroyed nine militant camps, the spokesman said. "Many of those kidnapped have undergone psychological trauma and indoctrination," he said.

This is huge, for a variety of reasons.

Earlier this month, we covered the anniversary of the mass abduction of 200 Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram. Nigeria's new government made waves when it tacitly acknowledged that those kidnapped were most likely not coming home. Factoring in the time missing, and the nature of the captors, holding out hope was no longer a realistic option. For the girls taken last year, that's likely still the case; but today, hope remained alive for almost 300 other women and girls who were rescued by the Nigerian military. The captives were rescued during operations by the Nigerian military to seize four Boko Haram camps in the Sambisa Forest in northeast Nigeria. From Fox News:

A military source who was in Sambisa told The Associated Press that some of the women rescued Tuesday fought back, and that Boko Haram was using armed women as human shields, putting them as their first line of defense. The Nigerian troops managed to subdue them and rounded them all up, and some said they were forced to fight for Boko Haram, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Boko Haram also has used girls and women as suicide bombers, sending them into crowded market places and elsewhere. A month ago the Nigerian military began pounding the Sambisa Forest in air raids, an assault they said earlier they had been avoiding for fear of killing the Chibok schoolgirls, or inciting their captors to kill them.

Nigerian President-elect Muhammadu Buhari is already making waves in his divided country. On today's anniversary of the mass abduction of 200 girls in Chibok by members of Boko Haram, Buhari walked back the previous administration's promises to find the girls, and took a tone of remembrance. The "Bring Back our Girls" movement is still alive and well, but many members of the campaign to seek justice---including members of the new administration---have begun pivoting away from Goodluck Jonathan's "Bring Back Our Girls — Now and Alive!" slogan by introducing a new one: "Never to be forgotten." The reaction to the new Administration's position has been less than supportive, especially in areas where Boko Haram is especially active. From the AP:

In Chibok, dozens of family members and supporters marked the anniversary by gathering at the remains of the school, in front of a burned out and roofless classroom. Young girls held handwritten signs demanding "Bring back our girls — Now and Alive." One mother, Mariam Abubakar, told the crowd she was in disbelief that the government had been unable to rescue the girls during a whole year.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has officially conceded defeat in this week's elections. Initial counts suggest he lost by more than 2 million votes. Those of you familiar with Nigeria's political evolution understand what a huge step this concession is toward getting through the election season; operatives on the ground in Nigeria anticipated violence, and for good reason. Fighting following 2011's highly-contested elections led to the deaths of over 800 people after allegations surfaced that efforts were made to disenfranchise voters unlikely to support the incumbent regime. So, a public concession is a huge deal---but it's not been effective at diffusing all tension:

As the scale of this weekend's electoral landslide became clear, President Goodluck Jonathan called Buhari on Tuesday to concede defeat to the opposition leader, Buhari's camp said, an unprecedented step that should help to defuse anger among Jonathan's supporters. In the religiously mixed northern city of Kaduna, where 800 people were killed in violence after the last elections in 2011, Buhari supporters streamed onto the streets, waving flags, dancing and singing in celebration.

Boko Haram killed over 10,000 people last year, perpetuating a reign of terror that still hasn't managed to break through the tough outer crust of the American media's attention. (Don't talk to me about #BringBackOurGirls...that was a trend that was abandoned at the very moment it became obvious that terrorists don't give a damn about your hashtagged agenda.) BH may be a motley rebel force (an Uber driver from Nigeria once told me that a few decently-trained American platoons could wipe them out in an afternoon) but that doesn't mean they haven't managed to put the fear of God into the people of Nigeria---especially those in the northeastern sector. Back in February the group managed to force a six week delay in the upcoming presidential elections as officials from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Benin began formulating a plan to eliminate BH, and only recently has that coalition force begun to gain ground in preventing BH from targeting both strategically important as well as "soft targets." Nigeria has a big "top down" problem when it comes to governance, and the tension created by the disparity between the "haves" and the "have nots" is reflected in what we know so far about the contest between current President Goodluck Jonathan, and former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari. Boko Haram managed to sabotage Sunday's elections, demonstrating just how adept they still are at terrorizing those "soft targets." WSJ explains what happened: