Boko Haram: Chibok Girls A Year And Counting

The Islamist group, Boko Haram, wants to institute an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria and is in particular opposed to western-style modern education, which it says lures people away from following Islamic teaching as a way of life. Thousands of people have been killed in attacks perpetrated by the group, and the Nigeria Federal Government declared a state of emergency in may 2013 in Borno state in its fight against insurgency. The resulting crackdown has led to the capture or killing of hundreds of Boko Haram members, with the remainder retreating to mountainous drads from which they have increasingly targeted civilians. However, the campaign has failed to stabilize the country.
Since 2010, Boko Haram has targeted schools, killing hundreds of students. A spokesperson of the group said such attacks would continue as long as the Nigeria government continued to interfere with traditional Islamic education. Around 10,000 children have been know to kidnap girls, whom it believes should not be educated and use them as cooks or sex slaves.
Book Haram attack was intensified in 2014. In February, the group killed more than 100 Christian men  in the villages of Doron Bags and Izghe. Also in February, 59 Boys were killed in the Federal Government College attack in northeastern Nigeria. In March that same year, the group attacked the Giwa Military Barracks, freeing captures Militants. Boko Haram has been blamed for nearly 4,000 deaths in 2014. These attacks were intensified as a result of the training the group received from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula.
The Kidnapping Of Chibok Girls
On the night of14-15 April2014, a group of militants attacked the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria. They broke into the school, pretending to be officers trying to save them from an impending attack by Boko Haram, telling the girls to get out and come with them. A large number of students were taken away in trucks, possibly into konduga area of the Sambisa forest where Boko Haram were known to have fortified camps.
Houses in Chibok were also burnt down in the incident. The abduction occurred on the day as a bombing attack in Abuja in which at least 88 people died. The school had been closed for four weeks prior to the attack due to the deteriorating security situation, but students from multiple school had called in to take their final exams in physics.
There were 539 students from multiple villages registered for the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE), although it is unclear how many were in attendance at the time of the attack. The children were aged 16 to18 and were in their final year of school. Initial reports said 85 students had been kidnapped in the attack. Over the 19-20Aprilweekend, the military released a statement that said more than 200 of129 kidnapped girls, had been freed. However, the statement was retracted, and on 21 April, parents said 234 girls were missing. A number of the students escaped the kidnappers in two groups. According to the police, approximately 276children were taken in the attack, of whom 53 had escaped as of 2 May, 2014, other reports said that 329 girls were kidnapped 53had escaped and 276 were still missing.
Amnesty international said it believes the Nigerian military had four hours advanced warning of the kidnapping, but failed to send reinforcements to protect the school. Nigeria’s armed forces have had confirmed that the Nigerian military had four hours advance notice of the attack but said that their over-extended  forces were unable to mobilize reinforcements
Jonathan N.C. Hill of Kings College, London, has pointed out that Boko Haram kidnapped these girls after coming increasingly under the influence of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and asserts that the group’s goal is to use girls and young women as sexual objects and as a means of intimidating the civilian population into non-resistance. Hill describes the attacks a similar to kidnapping of girls in Algeria in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Aftermath of the kidnapping
According to Boko Hrama leader, Abubakar Shekau, the students have been forced to convert to Islam and in to marriage with members of Boko Haram, with a reputed “Bride price” of N2, 000 each. Many of the students were taken to the neighbouring countries of Chad and Cameroon, with sightings reported of the students crossing borders with militants and sighting of the students by villages living in the Sambisa forest. The forest is considered a refuge for Boko Haram. Local residents have been able to track the movements of the students with help of contacts across Northeastern Nigeria.
On 2 May, 2014, Police said they were still unclear as to the exact number of students kidnapped. They asked parents to provide documents so an official count could be made, as school records had been damaged in the attack. On 4 May, the Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, spoke publicly about the kidnapping for the first time, saying the government was doing everything it could to find the missing girls. At the same time, he blamed parents for out supplying enough information about their missing children to the police.
On 5 May, a video in which Shakau claimed responsibility for the kidnappings emerge.  Shekau claimed that “Allah instructed me to sell them. I will carry out his instruction” and “Slavery is allowed in my religion, and I shall capture people and make them slaves”. He said the girls should not have been in school and instead should have been married since girls as young as nine are suitable for marriage.
Following the kidnapping incident, Boko Haram again abducted another eight girls, aged between 12-15, from northeastern Nigeria, a number that was later raised to eleven.
Chibok is primarily a Christian village and Shekan acknowledged that most of the girls seized were not Muslims: “The girls that have not accepted Islam, they are now gathered in numbers…and we treat them well the Prophet Muhammed treated the infidels he seized”.
On 5 May 2014, at least 300 residents of the nearby town of Gamboru Ngala were killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants after Nigerian security forces had left the town to search for the kidnapped students. On 9 May, former Boko Haram negotiator, Shehu Sani stated that the group wanted to swap the abducted girls for its jailed members. On 11 May, Kashim Shettima, Governor of Borno State in Nigeria, said that he had sighed the abducted girls and that the girls were not taken across the Borders of Cameroon or Chad. On 12 May Boko Haram released a video showing about 130 kidnapped girls, each Chad in a Lijad and a long Islamic chador, and demanded a prisoner exchange.
A journalist brokered deal to secure the release of the girls in exchange for prisoners held in Nigerian jails was scrapped at a late stage on 24 May after President Goodluck Jonathan consulted with U.S., Israel, French and British foreign ministers in Paris, where the consensus was that no deals should be struck with terrorists and that a solution involving force was required.
On 26 May, the Nigeria Chief of Defense Staff announced that the Nigerian security forces had located the kidnapped girls, but ruled out a forceful rescue attempt for fears of collateral damage.
On 30 May, it was reported that a civilian militia in the Baale region of Northeastern Nigeria found two of the kidnapped girls raped, “half dead”, and tied to a tree. Villagers said the Boko Haram group had left the two girls, and killed four others disobedient girls and buried them.
On 24th June, it was reported that 91 more women and children were abducted in other areas of Borno state. One source estimated in June that there could be as many as 600 girls held by Boko Haram in three camps outside Nigeria.
On 26 June, it was announced that Levick, a Washington, D.C. Public Relations Firm, had received “a contract worth more than $1.2 million (1.2 million dollars)” from the government of Nigeria to work on “the international and local media narrative” surrounding the Chibok school girls kidnapping.
On 15 July, Zakaria Mohammed, a high-ranking member of Boko Haram was arrested at Darazo-Basrika Road while fleeing from the counter insurgency operations going on around the Balmo Forest.
On 12 October, it was reported that four girls from the originally kidnapped group had escaped and walked three weeks to freedom in Nigeria. They said they had been held in a camp in Cameroon and raped everyday.
REACTION
After the kidnapping, Governor Kashim Shettima demanded to visit Chibok, despite being advised that it was too dangerous. The military was working with vigilantes and volunteers to search the forest near Nigeria –Cameroon border on 21 April 2014.
The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon and UNICEF in a press release on 26 April 2014, Condemned the abduction, as did the now president-elect of the federal Republic of Nigeria, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd). The UN Security Council also condemned the attack and warned of action against Boko Haram Militants for abducting the girls.
Parents and others took to social media to complain about the government’s perceived slow and inadequate response. The news caused international outage against Boko Haram and the Nigeria government. On 30 April and 1 May, protests demanding greater government action were held in several Nigerian cities. Most parents, however, were afraid to speak publicly for fear their daughters would be targeted for reprisal. On 3 May and 4 May, protests were held in major Western cities including Los Angeles and London. At the same time, the hash tag #BringBackOurGirls# began to trend globally on Twitter as the story continued to spread and by 11 May it had attracted 2.3 million tweets. A woman who helped organize protests was detained by the police, apparently because the First Lady of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan, felt slighted when the woman showed up for a meeting instead of the mothers of victims. The woman was released soon after. Reports said the first lady further incensed protesters by suggesting abduction reports were faked by Boko Haram supporters. Several online petitions were created to pressure the Nigerian government to act against the kidnapping. On 30 April, hundreds marched to the National Assembly to demand government and military action against the kidnappers.
The president of the Muslim Student’s Society of Nigeria (MSSN), called on Muslims to fast and pray “in order to seek Allah’s intervention in this precarious time” Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, also called for prayers and intensified efforts to rescue the students. On 9 May, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State called on all Muslims and Christians to join in a three days prayers and fasting which he declared for the girls. That same day, Muslims in Cameroon called on fellow believers not to marry any of the girls should they be offered to them. Again the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, joined other religious leaders in the Muslim world in condemning the kidnappings,describing Boko Haram as misguided and intent on smearing the name of Islam. He stated that Islam is against kidnapping, and that marrying kidnapped girls is not permitted.
The scale of kidnapping was unprecedented, which led former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell to declare that Boko Haram’s strength “appears to be increasing. The government’s ability to provide security to its citizens appears to be decreasing”. Director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, J. Peter Pham, said “The failure of the government to even get a clear count further reinforces a perception of systemic government failure”. The Economist “Labeled President Goodluck Jonathan as incompetent,” saying that Jonathan and the Nigerian military “cannot be trusted any longer to guarantee security for Nigerians”, adding that the worst aspect of the Nigerian government’s handling of the abduction is its seeming indifference to the plight of the girls’ families. It took more than two weeks before president Jonathan addressed the matter in public. Jonathan later attributed his silence to his desire not to compromise the details of security efforts carried out to rescue the girls. President Jonathan also engaged a public relations film Levick, for $1.2 million dollars to improve the public presentation of his handling of the crisis.
On 22 July, the militant group again attacked the nearby villages, killing at least 51 people including 11 parents of the abducted girls.
On 23 and 24 July, vigils and protests were held around the world to mark 100 days since the kidnapping. Participating countries including Nigeria, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Togo, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Portugal.
A Human Rights Watch report released on 27th October 2014 claims,
“Their statements suggest that the Nigeria government has failed to adequately protect women and girls from a myriad of abuses, provide them with effective support and mental health and medical care after captivity, ensure access to safe schools, or investigate and prosecute those responsible for the abuse”.
The report also claims, “The relative ease with which Boko Haram carried out the Chibok abductions seems to have emboldened it to step up abductions elsewhere”.
As of 5 January 2015, daily raddies  by Bring Back Our Girls demonstrators at the Unity Fountain in Abuja were continuing, despite police efforts to shut them down.
On April 13, 2015 Hundreds of protesters wearing red tape across their lips walked silently through the capital Abuja marking a year since Boko Haram kidnapped the girls.
International governmental response
The United Kingdom- They agreed to send experts to Nigeria to assist in the search for the students. The British experts were to be drawn from various governmental departments including the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence, and would concentrate on planning, co-ordination and advice to local authorities. A Royal Air Force Sectional R1 reconnaissance aircraft has been deployed to Ghana to assist in the search.
The United States- they agreed to send experts to Nigeria to assist in the search for the students. The America team consist of military and law enforcement officers, specializing in “intelligence, investigations, hostage negotiation, information sharing, and victim assistance”. The US is not considering sending armed forces. Former Nigerian Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and Dr. Babangida Aliyu, Chairman of the Northern Governor’s forum, welcomed the US government’s offer of military assistance. On 12 May 2014, 16 military personnel from US African Command joined the search and Rescue Operations. On 22 May the department of Defense announced that it was deploying an  Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ands 80 United States Air Force personnel to nearby Chad. Chad was chosen as a Base for intelligence, Surveillance, and reconnaissance flights. Because of its access to northern Nigeria.
France- The French offered a specialist team. French President Francois Hollande also offered to hold a summit in Paris with Nigeria and its neigbours to tackle the issues.
China – The Chinese announced its intention to make available any useful; information acquired by its satellites and intelligence services.
Canada- Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper acknowledged that Canadians has joined the international effort to free the schoolgirls. Detail about the extent and duration of the involvement are Being kept secret.
Iran -They “offered to help Nigeria resolve the issue of the abduction of nearly 300 female students in the African country by Takfifr terrorist group, Boko Haram”. These remarks were made by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs, Hossein Amir-Adollahian, ay a meeting in Tehran with Nigeria Ambassardon to the Islamic Republic, Tukur Mani
Israel  Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu offered assistance to the Nigerian President in locating the missing pupils on 11 May 2014. “Israel expresses its deep shock to at the Crime committed against the girls. We are willing to help assist in locating the girls and fighting the terror that is addicting you,” he said. According to an unnamed Israeli: official, the Prime minister later sent a team of intelligence experts to Nigeria. It contained people experienced in dealing with hostage situations, But he said they “are not Operational troops, they’re there to advice”. A joint US.-Israel project, which modified the Beechcrafts C-12 Huron aircraft for electronic warfare and reconnaissance, was Being used and “may Prove decisive in finding the girls,” according to one source.
European Union –  The European Union passes a resolution on 17 July, “calling for immediate and unconditional release of the abducted schoolgirls”.
It has been over year since the abduction of Chibok girls, on 28 April 2015, the Nigerian troops rescued 200 girls and 93 women from Sambisa forest and have said they would screen them in order to profile them to ascertain if any of the abducted Chibok girls are among those rescued.
The president-elect, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari, has promised Nigerians that within a few months of assuming office that his government would see to the rescue of the girls and ending the reign of the insurgents. With mark the end of Boko Haram