One year ago this month, Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau released a video announcing a new, reprehensible front in its bloody attempt at forced Islamism: his fighters will begin abducting girls and selling them.
The kidnappings, he said, were retaliation for Nigerian security forces nabbing the wives and children of group members.
And for 12 months, the
radical militant group has done just that -- with Nigerians treating the
sporadic kidnappings with disgust but resignation.
But that's changed now.
"When this first happened
... what I was hearing from my friends and from other people was like,
'Why do I care? Nigeria is done. Nigeria is going to disintegrate,'"
said Emeka Daniel, whose father was kidnapped in Nigeria in an unrelated
incident.
"I refused to believe that," he said. "We can't let this be the new normal."
Here are six reasons why
the Boko Haram abductions, the rambling and repugnant message its leader
released this week, and Nigeria's inadequate response should matter to
the rest of the world.
Terrorism isn't isolated
Just imagine if 276
girls been kidnapped in the United States. The response would be mass
outrage and an forceful demand for a response.
As borders become more irrelevant for terrorists, the whole world needs to take notice of the likes of Boko Haram.
"We need to take
ownership as if this happened in Chicago or this happened in Washington,
D.C.," Nicole Lee, outgoing president of the TransAfrica Forum, said.
"We need to be talking about this... We need to make sure our own
government is helping in any way that we can."
What the Boko Haram has set out to do in Africa's most populous nation is as heinous as the havoc the Taliban is wreaking.
"They actually
originated as a group called the Nigerian Taliban which kind of explains
where they're coming from," says CNN's national security analyst Peter
Bergen. "They are aiming to impose Taliban-style rule on much of
Nigeria, particularly in the north where they are based."
The group's name itself
means "Western education is sinful" in the local Hausa language. Its aim
is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law. The group especially
opposes the education of women.
Under its version of
Sharia law, women should be at home raising children and looking after
their husbands, not at school learning to read and write.
Then consider its ties to al Qaeda.
How closely related Boko Haram is to al Qaeda is hard to define, but the United States says it has links.
"Al Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb, which is the North African al Qaeda affiliate, has given money
to Boko Haram in the past," Bergen said. "There is reporting suggesting
that Osama bin Laden was in communication with the leadership of this
group."
Daniel put it succinctly.
"People are thinking,
this doesn't affect my country, but I'm telling them terrorists ...
didn't just wake up one morning and decide to become terrorists," she
said.
"These guys, it takes
years for them to decide to go out there and commit these atrocities. So
as the world, we have to come together and try to find a solution to
this problem."
The United States is so
concerned about anti-Western terrorism in Nigeria that the State
Department released a warning last week to Americans traveling within
and to Nigeria that "groups associated with terrorism" may be planning
an attack on a Sheraton hotel in Lagos, the country's commercial center,
Bergen said.
The inhumane treatment of children concerns us all
The terrorists came to
the girls' school in the middle of the night, posing as soldiers. After
overwhelming security guards, they stormed the students' dormitory.
"We thought they were
soldiers, and they asked us to board a vehicle," student Amina Shawok
said. "My friends and I jumped from the vehicle and ran back home
because we realized they don't look innocent to us."
But more than 200 of her
classmates didn't escape and disappeared into the night. As the
militants left, they burned down nearby buildings in the northeastern
town of Chibok.
Even worse are fears of what will happen to the girls next.
The new video from the purported leader of Boko Haram detailed this chilling plan:
"I abducted your girls. I
will sell them in the market, by Allah," said a man claiming to be Boko
Haram leader Abubakar Shekau in the video first obtained by Agence
France-Presse.
If the claim proves true, the 276 teen girls could become child brides or sex slaves.
Rights groups have said Boko Haram has kidnapped girls as young as 12.
And the abductions are only getting worse.
What's being done to save the Nigerian girls?
In the first two months of this year alone, it kidnapped at least 25 girls and women, according to Human Rights Watch.
Nigeria kidnapped girls
In November, the
militant group abducted dozens of Christian girls and women, most of
whom were later rescued by the military deep in a forest in Maiduguri.
At the time of their rescue, some were pregnant or had children, and
others had been forcibly converted to Islam and married off to their
kidnappers.
The parents' hands are tied
Any parent can only
imagine the horror of a child getting kidnapped. Now multiply that by
276 and add the fear of a volatile terrorist group.
Families of some of the kidnapped girls are petrified of speaking to the media for fear of retribution against their daughters.
"Many of the parents
feel if there is even kind of movement from their end, they could see
the children killed," CNN's Nigeria-based correspondent Vladimir
Duthiers said.
"The parents told us,
over the course of the last three weeks, they themselves have risked
their own lives trying to go in armed with machetes, sticks and rocks to
do the job they say the Nigerian military is unwilling to do."
It's the price they pay
for daring to send their girls to school despite threats from Boko
Haram. The kidnapped girls were from Borno state, where 72% of
primary-age children have never attended school, according to the U.S.
Embassy in Nigeria.
Daniel said he knows
what the parents are going through. He father was abducted in Nigeria
four years ago while returning home from work.
"You can't sleep. You
can't eat. And up to today, I'm still hearing the voice of my when she
was crying and my siblings," Daniel said.
"So I really feel for
these mothers that lost their daughters. It's -- I can't -- you can't
really begin to understand what they are going through until you're in
that situation."
Daniel's father was shot and almost died. He was released only after the family paid a ransom.
What happens in Nigeria has deeper repercussions
Nigeria boasts Africa's largest economy. But internal problems can have a ripple effect far and wide.
Nigerian militant
activity has already spilled over to neighbors such as Cameroon, whose
government has warned that clerics have been recruiting members in
mosques in the country, said Orji Uzor Kalu, a former governor of Nigeria's Abia State.
"In this era of
accelerating globalization, it appears Boko Haram hopes to align itself
with extremist forces in Niger, Mali and potentially in the Middle East,
which raises the specter of coordination on the stockpiling of
munitions, intelligence gathering and future assaults," Kalu said.
The Nigerian response has been feeble
Two days after the
kidnapping, the Nigerian military said all but eight of the girls were
free. That turned out to be untrue, prompting the father of one of the
abducted girls to say the government had gone from using "blatant
propaganda" to "blatant lie."
For three weeks, President Goodluck Jonathan said nothing. He is yet to visit the region.
And when he did begin
speaking about the abductions, he criticized the parents for not
cooperating with the police, for not sharing information.
"It's been awful, frankly," said Richard Downie of the Nigerian government's response.
Downie is the deputy
director and fellow for the African program at the Washington-based
Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"These girls were taken
in the middle of last month and really it was not until last night that
we had the first lengthy comments from the president, which lends
credence to this allegation that the government is not sufficiently
invested in this crisis," he said Monday.
"Unfortunately history
has proven the fact that the political class in Nigeria ... simply does
not care sufficiently about its own people."
Add to that the comments Jonathan's wife reportedly made.
"Patience Jonathan who
is the first lady called some of the mothers to her, to meet with her,
and she basically told them that they really need to be quiet and they
were really bringing shame and embarrassment to Nigeria," said Lee, of
the TransAfrica Forum. "That's certainly a problem."
This can't be business as usual
With a World Economic
Forum set to begin Wednesday in the capital city of Abuja, the
government is under mounting pressure to find and save the girls.
The U.S. government is offering to help, but said Nigeria must take the lead in finding the students.
Officials told CNN the
Obama administration is sharing intelligence with Nigerian authorities
and could provide other assistance, but there is no planning to send
U.S. troops.
A group of U.S. senators
from both parties has introduced a resolution calling for the United
States to help the Nigerian government improve school security and go
after Boko Haram.
The resolution stops
short of calling for sending American troops, instead urging "timely
civilian assistance" from the United States and allied African nations
to help rescue the abducted girls.
Rights groups are therefore heartened at the groundswell of support, with the globally trending hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.
Crowds from Los Angeles to London rallied over the weekend.
"I think one of the most
beautiful things that has happened is people are taking the hashtag,
putting them in front of them and saying, 'Bring back our girls,'" Lee
said. "I think people are doing that. It's catching fire."
