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Heritage Foundation
Terrorists Who Kidnap Little Girls
Amy Payne
May 14, 2014
Parents and relatives of kidnapped schoolgirls react during a protest
over the Nigerian government's failure to rescue the abducted girls.
(Photo: EPA/STR/Newscom)
Parents and relatives of kidnapped schoolgirls react during a protest
over the Nigerian government’s failure to rescue the abducted girls.
(Photo: EPA/STR/Newscom)
Americans have increasingly been pulled into the frightening story of
more than 250 schoolgirls in Nigeria who were kidnapped by terrorist
group Boko Haram. People around the world have watched and prayed and
helped spread awareness of the girls’ plight by using the social media
hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. Boko Haram’s leader has offered to trade
the girls for the freedom of captured terrorists.
The Foundry asked Charlotte Florance, a Heritage expert who focuses on
Africa, to give us some background on who these terrorists are – and
what America has known about them for years.
The Foundry: What is Boko Haram? Has it been active for long?
Charlotte Florance: Boko Haram is a Nigerian-based terrorist
organization that has received funding and training from al-Qaeda in
the Islamic Maghreb, al-Qaeda’s North Africa franchise. It attacked the
United Nations headquarters in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, in 2011.
Boko Haram has effectively turned the northern part of Nigeria into a
conflict zone, forcing more than a quarter-million Nigerians to flee
their homes.
The terrorist group conducts nearly daily indiscriminate attacks
against both Muslims and Christians, including car bombs,
assassinations, shootings, raids and abductions. More than 8,000 people
have died in the past four years as a result of the conflict driven by
Boko Haram and Ansaru’s (a Boko Haram breakaway organization) violent
activities.
Why is it abducting schoolgirls?
The abduction of the girls from Chibok follows Boko Haram’s desire to
ban women’s education and its goal to create a Sharia law state. Since
2013, Boko Haram has claimed it would abduct infidel women and turn
them into slaves to sell at the market.
What is the U.S. doing to help?
Last week, the Obama administration announced it was sending a limited
number of military personnel (about 30), intelligence and negotiators
to assist the Nigerian government in locating and securing the girls.
The U.S. is flying surveillance missions across the region to look for
the girls, but given the vast and heavily forested terrain, aerial
surveillance is unlikely to produce meaningful intelligence. Given the
regional ramifications of Boko Haram and the likelihood of the girls
being outside Nigeria, U.S. personnel in the immediate term will likely
have a limited impact on securing the girls, other than to allow
President Obama to say he “did something.”
Hillary Clinton’s State Department refused to give Boko Haram the legal
designation of official terrorist organization, which it did not
receive from the U.S. government until 2013. What does that mean?
For nearly three years, the U.S. State Department was unwilling to
acknowledge the threat and legally define Boko Haram as a terrorist
organization, despite its overt and calculated efforts to terrorize
Nigeria and its neighbors, including international targets like the
U.N. headquarters. Failure to do this denied U.S. authorities one of
the key tools required to counter the group’s activities.
The Heritage Foundation had been warning of the group’s threat and
calling for its official designation by the State Department since
2009. A timely designation would have given agencies such as the FBI,
CIA and the Justice Department the resources to focus on disrupting and
countering the terrorist group’s financial support network. If the
requests for this designation from Congress and experts had been
answered sooner by the State Department, these young girls might have
completed their high school exit exams instead of being kidnapped by
terrorists.
Why did the U.S. wait so long to designate Boko Haram as terrorists?
Despite the serious implications of instability and violence in Nigeria
and the region, the State Department repeatedly deferred to the
Nigerian government’s request that the group not be designated so as
not to discourage investment in what is now the largest economy in
Africa, rather than allowing U.S. national interests – and common sense
– to take precedence.
What is America’s relationship with Nigeria?
Nigeria is the United States’ largest trading partner in sub-Saharan
Africa. It remains a top producer of oil sold in the United States and
is one of the largest contributors of U.N. peacekeepers worldwide.
Given the ongoing crisis in Eastern Europe with Russia, a secure and
stable oil supply from Nigeria will be a critical component of European
energy security.
What should the U.S. do next?
The Obama administration would be naïve to think that once the
#BringBackOurGirls story leaves the media limelight, so will the threat
of Boko Haram. French President Francois Hollande has offered to hold a
regional security summit with Nigeria and surrounding nations to
discuss partnership and coordination opportunities going forward.
Nigeria has accepted the invitation. The U.S. should support France’s
efforts and accept an invitation to the summit.
Before the girls were kidnapped, the U.S. was already training and
professionalizing a small number of Nigerian forces, in particular
helping to stand up Nigeria’s own “Army Special Operations Command.”
These types of training and partnership opportunities that help
professionalize the Nigerian security forces should be expanded.
Outside of military and security support, the U.S. should also look at
opportunities to help the Nigerian government advance economic freedom,
focusing on more inclusive growth and dynamic job creation in northern
Nigeria. This would help create greater economic opportunities and
build trust with the Nigerian government, undermining Boko Haram’s
ability to recruit and act with impunity in the north.
Read this and other articles with photos and links at Heritage Foundation
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