Nigeria: A Scenario of Kidnapping Female Students

 

The terms Intellectuals, Educated, Civil society activists have always posed a threat to reactionary and terrorist groups and global dictatorships, and they have always been the most targeted group by them.

In Nigeria, kidnappings of schoolchildren from schools have become a common occurrence and occur frequently as terrorist groups exploit kidnappings in order to demand ransoms and money to finance themselves and students become the victims.

Kidnapping Students

Last month, Boko Haram kidnapped more than 300 students from a government boarding school in one of the western states, which for two decades has suffered from attacks by the Islamic Boko Haram group in the country and has kidnapped students, demolished schools and churches, and targeted Nigerian forces in the country and government centers.

The latest attacks resulted in the kidnapping of students from one of the government schools that Boko Haram claims is teaching students the ideas of the infidels and the infidel West, according to the words of its leader Abu Bakr Shekau. 

Therefore, it kidnaps the students and their fate remains unknown until they are released by paying a ransom in favor of Boko Haram, which the Nigerian government denies.

After nearly a week, and through joint operations between Nigerian forces and regional aid, these forces succeeded in releasing the girls and returning them to their homes, and according to news agencies that some of them were killed, the fate of a few of them remains unknown, according to the agencies.

Boko Haram "Western Education is Forbidden"

Western education is forbidden. This is the meaning of the name of the group that claims to represent Islam and Muslims in Nigeria, a country that is divided into half Muslim and half Christian according to government statistics.

Boko Haram was established in 2002 by Muhammad Yusuf, a prominent religious man at the time, and the beginning was with the establishment of a religious complex and Islamic schools have turned into a center for disseminating jihadist ideology

Later on, the group’s activity increased in order to prevent Muslims from participating in elections and any political or social activity, and then declared allegiance to al-Qaeda, and in 2014, Abu Bakr Shekau declared allegiance to the Islamic state, as Boko Haram was also seeking to establish a caliphate in Nigeria and overthrow the government

The group was classified on the list of terrorist organizations, as it launched attacks on schools, churches, and government centers, and its activities extended to Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Where civilians were targeted, thousands were killed and millions displaced from their homes because of these attacks and the common alliance between these countries to confront them and turn it into a war between the coalition Regional and Boko Haram.

Regional Alliance

In 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 300 students from the school in response to the killing of its leader, Mohamed Youssef, who was killed in 2009 by government forces. 

This incident resulted in widespread international sympathy that led to the formation of a regional alliance forming each of the Chadian, Cameroonian, Nigerian, and Nigerian forces, and to help from western countries and American units.

This alliance succeeded in rescuing students from the grip of Boko Haram, but not all of them were still unaccounted for, which made Nigerians question the strength of their government in protecting them from Boko Haram attacks, and some of them directed to expel their children from schools due to the repeated attacks on them.

Fate of Boko Haram

The regional alliance directed a strong blow to Boko Haram in his stronghold, which resulted in his withdrawal to new locations and reducing the number of those affected by the attacks and the ongoing war in the country. But the attacks did not stop completely despite the Nigerian government announcing several times that they had been eliminated

The Nigerian government and its allies did not succeed in eliminating Boko Haram, but since 2015, an internal division has arisen in the group, whereby a decision by the Islamic State to remove Abu Bakr Shekau from his position and appoint Abu Musab Al-Barnawi as his replacement has been made. But Shekau rejected this decision and he continued to be a leader.

In order for the internal division in the group to begin due to this decision and to become paranoid and intensify the intensity of the attacks that led to the killing of an entire village and the displacement of millions of others from their homes and the expansion of attacks on Cameroon and the killing of members of the Cameroonian army.

So far, Boko Haram has not been eliminated by the allied governments, but the internal division that occurred due to the decision of the Islamic State may be the guarantor that the division leads to the division and weakening of the group and may lead to the end of the existence of this group, especially after the elimination of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Written by - Abduljalil Hage

Edited by - Adrija Saha