On 14 of April 2014 the international community witnessed one of the most shocking attacks of Boko Haram. Boko Haram fighters advanced to Chibok and attacked a girls’ secondary school during the night. The girls were staying in the dormitories of the school preparing for their exams, when the troops violated the school and – dressed in military uniforms – lied to the girls that they are sent by government to rescue them as they were informed for an attack. The girls believed their story and entered the trucks, painted as the military ones, without resistance. It was when they saw their school in flames that they realized that something else was wrong.
The Boko Haram organization lies back to 2002. The group was formed under the leadership of a young fundamentalist who believed that the westernization of Nigeria, due to the British colonists, destroyed the Islamic routes of Nigeria. Mohammed Yusuf, the first leader of Boko Haram, claimed that the western lifestyle did not match with the Islamic world and prompted a revolution against the modification of the Islamic value system. Initially the group was known as Jama’at ahlis Sunnah lid Da’wat wal Jihad, which means “people committed to the propagation of the Prophet’s teachings and jihad”. Due to Yusuf’s teachings that the western education (boko) is forbidden (haram) the group became known as Boko Haram.
Boko Haram uses similar methods as the fighters of the “Islamic State”, operating with brutal violence and numerous atrocities. During the Boko Haram raids in cities and villages hundreds of people – mostly men – are being slaughtered in front of their families, when they refuse to join Boko Haram. Women are being abducted.
The Chibok attack in April 2014, attracted the world’s attention mostly due to the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls. Most of them are still missing. There are several unanswered questions about the Chibok attack. First of all, it is reported that all secondary schools in Borno state were ordered to remain closed due to repeated attacks by Boko Haram extremists, but somehow the Chibok secondary school was reopened without official instructions. Also, government officials were informed hours before about the attack but they failed to react efficiently.
After the Chibok attack the attention of the international community turned towards Nigeria. Even though Boko Haram has been acting violently with innumerous brutalities for many years, the Chibok attack attracted the international attention and the reason was as simple as a hashtag on social media (it started from Twitter). Due to the “Bring Back Our Girls”(BBOG) campaign the world found out only in few weeks about the unfortunate event in Chibok. The campaign went viral and people from all over the world were expressing their support to the BBOG movement.
A fair question would be “why in Chibok”? Chibok has the biggest Christian population in the Borno state. The Chibok people managed to keep their belief even during the Sokoto jihad period and refused up to today to convert to Islam. They were in close cooperation with the British rulers during colonialism and it is believed that they have been influenced the most from the western educational system. In an official statement Boko Haram announced that the Christian teenage girls were kidnapped in order to be converted to Islam and/or to be sold to fellow Muslims. Abubakar Shekau (the current leader of Boko Haram) claims on some of his YouTube videos that the girls were sold for slavery or after being converted to Islam were sold to members of the group for marriage. The only girl that managed to escape in August 2016, reported that she was given to a Boko Haram soldier for marriage and she became a mother during captivity. We should not consider though that Boko Haram selects only areas with Christians to express its violence. Actually, there are several attacks towards other Muslims, mostly those that are considered by Boko Haram as “misbelievers” because they do not espouse the beliefs of jihadists.
It is observed that before the Chibok attack there were no incidents with teenage girls involved in suicide bombings. Therefore, it is believed that the kidnapped girls are being used by Boko Haram for such purposes. After the abduction of the girls there were numerous terrorist attacks in public places (eg. markets, school yards, police stations etc) that involved girls of the age of 10 – 11 years old. According to Shekau’s Youtube video, the teenagers had been converted and they would now fulfill God’s will, whatever that means. Reports from girls and women that managed to escape from their kidnappers, refer to repeated group rapes and military trainings. The Boko Haram seems to be using young girls for suicide attacks, against their will, but before that they are forced to convert to Islam. Those refusing are being killed. Witnesses say that the corpses are being thrown in massive graves that sometimes remain open.
The failure of the government to react effectively in the case of the Chibok attack stoked the suspicions that members of the political elite may be involved in Boko Haram’s atrocities. Let’s not forget that besides the theological ideology that empowers the extremists, there is also a lot of money involved considering the human trafficking operations. Politicians have been accused for their involvement in relation to human trafficking especially easing the illegal transfers at the borders. There was no official effort to save the girls from their kidnappers. Even though it was known that the girls were transferred to Sambisa forest, the military did not attempt to search for them. Only the day after the abduction a local group called the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) tried to find the girls in the forest but failed. That was the first and last attempt to rescue the girls and yet nothing organized by the authorities.
Boko Haram has recently declared a brotherhood with the “Islamic State” with the common goal of creating an international caliphate. Their “fight” now goes beyond Africa joining forces with the Middle East and elsewhere. The religious element in combination with the lack of fear, are very difficult to be defeated. This fact should be taken into account when analyzing contemporary terrorism. The ultimate goal of a jihadist is to join God by fulfilling His will, which in this case is to fight with all means for the implementation of the Sharia Law. Out of the 276 girls that were kidnapped on 14 of April 2014, more than 200 are still missing. Hopes for their salvation are narrowing, while it is expected that some of them may be already at the last months of their pregnancy or even the beginning of motherhood. Others, may have been victims of suicide bombings. The local authorities proved to be incapable of protecting the girls and unable to coordinate a mission against Boko Haram. The international attention focuses on the ISIS activities in the Middle East, while the referred terrorist group is being active in Africa for several years, counting much more casualties as reported by the “Independent” on November 21, 2015.