Nigeria heartbroken as more go missing
On Saturday, Oct. 18, Boko Haram militants attacked the villages of Waga Mangoro and Garta in Northeastern Nigeria. Reports say that during the assault they also kidnapped 60 young girls.
The terrorist group (declared such by the US in 2013) is predominant in global media for their actions taken this past April, kidnapping over 200 young girls from a public school in Chibok, Nigeria, all of whom remain held in captivity.
“Boko Haram” is translated from the Hausa language to “Western education forbidden.” The groundwork principles of this radical Islamic group are anti-Western civilization and anti-Christian. These ideologies follow with the attacks that they have committed, which have almost exclusively targeted Christian school-aged children.
The group was founded in 2002, with objectives ranging to such extremes as taking control of Nigeria and reforming it as an Islamic state. Since the group launched their first military operation in 2009, the organization has been responsible for thousands of deaths, mostly in Northeastern Nigeria, including attacks on police and the UN headquarters in Abuja.
The attacks on Waga Mangoro and Garta, located near the towns of Madagali and Michika, came just days after the Nigerian government declared a cease-fire agreement with Boko Haram, which included the proposition of negotiations regarding the safe return of the more than 200 girls taken in April.
Some argue that this agreement was never made, due in part to the lack of confirmation by Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, who is currently the most-wanted man in Nigeria. This view is also based on other attacks and killings that have been reported across northern Nigeria with strong links to the Boko Haram militia.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the attacks on these two villages, but local residents describe the events of Oct. 18as a gruesome. Reports from locals describe the militants violently attacking the villages, burning buildings, and cutting the throats of four men.
The news of the attacks came as Members of Nigerian parliament approved a $1 billion program to increase training and upgrade equipment for military personnel to better control the insurgencies in Northeastern Nigeria.
The uncertainty of the wellbeing of these girls weighs heavily on the people of Nigeria, who are still struggling to garner global support in the mission to bring the taken girls home. Boko Haram spokesmen have stated that the girls are unharmed and are free of sexual abuse, but the violent nature of the group and the length of the girls’ detainment suggests otherwise to Nigerian locals.