As Boko Haram abducts more schoolgirls, the government’s incapacity is laid bare.
In a chilling monologue, the head of the shadowy, violent Islamist organisation named Boko Haram — which, in Hausa, roughly translates to “Western education is forbidden” — claimed responsibility for the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Borno in the largely Muslim north of Nigeria three weeks ago, threatening to “sell them off” because “women are slaves”. Abubakar Shekau’s horrific statement of intent should not surprise. After all, this is the same Boko Haram that, in the course of a bloody five-year insurgency, has routinely attacked students and teachers, murdering 59 boys in their school earlier this year. Its stated aim is to establish a medieval-style caliphate in north Nigeria.
The UK and the US, among others, have now been moved to offer assistance to Nigeria. But little in the way of facts is available about the Boko Haram of today. It exploits all the institutional weaknesses that make it difficult to verify even the most basic information in Nigeria, such as the number of girls abducted. Porous borders with Chad and Cameroon mean that the girls are likely to have been separated into small groups and whisked away, making it harder to track them as time passes.
