The news that over 200 school children were last week abducted by the
Boko Haram terrorist group in North East Nigeria makes for depressing
reading. Pupils sitting their end of school examinations were rounded
up, packed in to vehicles and taken away after their school was invaded
in a 4 hour operation. The Nigerian military then issued a statement
that almost all the girls had been rescued. This proved to be a lie as
the school principal gave a statement to the contrary. It now appears
that a few of the girls were able to escape with the rest still held
captive. Of course the military later issued a statement to retract
their earlier one. So far no one knows the fate of the missing 200 or so
girls.
Or maybe we do. We know the fate of girls who are usually caught up
in conflict situations all over the world. In the past, in conflict
zones like Sierra Leone, Liberia and Uganda, girls who were abducted
were turned into sex slaves or forced to “marry” their abductors. Their
main role was to serve their masters in every way possible. They cook,
clean and are forced to have unprotected and endless sex with their
abductors. They are forced to have babies – who are later groomed as
children to become child soldiers to continue the war and kill people.
They become indoctrinated and are forced to partake in killing people.
This singular act of mass abduction of children has shifted the Boko
Haram insurgency from a middle of the road uprising to a possible longer
term conflict situation in Nigeria. It is obvious that with the success
of this initial mass abduction of girls, other operations of a similar
nature are bound to follow and other schools will be attacked with girls
abducted and enslaved.
Yet the abduction of girls by Boko Haram is not the only instance in
which children have been caught up as major victims in the conflict
plaguing that part of Nigeria. Boko Haram’s mantra that “Western
Education is a sin” ensures that educational institutions in the North
Eastern part of Nigeria – its stronghold – have become key targets of
attacks and invasion.
In the early hours of 25 February 2014, the terrorists invaded
Federal Government College in Buni Yadi, Yobe State and slaughtered at
least 50 school pupils, many of whom were asleep at the time. On the
6th of July 2013, they attacked another government school at Mamudo,
also in Yobe State and killed over 40 pupils. In September 2013, the
terrorists also attacked Gujiba College of Agriculture, slaying pupils
and teachers in the male dormitory. The Baga massacre of over 200 men,
women and children in April 2013 was a major tragedy of the Boko Haram
insurgency, but the greatest single tragedy was in Dogo Hawa, Plateau
State, where over 500 people were massacred in one cruel go – with a
high number of child victims involved.
So far, Boko Haram has killed over 5,000 people since it commenced
its terrible campaign of calumny against the Nigerian people in 2010.
Many of the victims are children. Many children have lost their parents
and relatives and these children will become or have become victims in
other ways – for instance, many will be prey to human traffickers as
they are homeless and parentless with no one to care for them. Others
will become reabsorbed into the terrorist world as fighters or killers
in order to be able to survive. The Boko Haram insurgency has also
disrupted the education of millions of children in that part of Nigeria.
So what is the role of the Nigerian government in all of the above?
The saddest part is that very little action is taking place on the
ground to help protect children from Boko Haram. Even though there is a
system of emergency rule in the areas where the terrorist are active,
they are still able to operate virtually unhindered. They attack schools
and other places, spending hours raping and killing – yet the Nigerian
military is unable to either prevent such attacks or counter them in any
way. Boko Haram is able to easily access, attack and kill children in
their schools with little or no protection offered by the government.
Virtually nothing is being done to rehabilitate or re-house victims of
the attacks. People are left to their own devices to survive their
ordeal and move on with their lives in whatever way possible.
Children are the real victims of the Boko Haram insurgency, having
been maimed, killed, orphaned, enslaved and terrorised in different
ways. They are victims of their own government’s inability to offer them
any form of support or protection. That is the real tragedy of the Boko
Haram terrorism – not simply that children are caught up in this
senseless conflict, but that their own government has failed to fulfil
its role as the protector of its own citizens.
The fact that schools in North East Nigeria can no longer function
appropriately nor guarantee the safety of children is a given. Unless
the government can send in troops to protect children, it is not only
senseless, but an act of cruelty to keep schools open – only for
children to be massacred and abducted by terrorists. It is a gross act
of irresponsibility on the part of the Nigerian government to put
children at such risk of harm. The safety of the children in North East
Nigeria is paramount. As long as the government is unable to guarantee
their protection, then unfortunately alternative forms of education need
to be made available, at least in the interim. In the meantime, let us
hope that the campaign of calumny against children by Boko Haram can be
at the very least curtailed by the government.
SOURCE: www.africanarguments.org
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