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According to news reports coming out of Nigeria the government of president Goodluck Johnathan may have successfully negotiated the release of the 276 captured Chibok school girls from the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram. As of this moment there has been no confirmation from the Boko Haram and none of the girls, declared as slaves by their Islamic captors, have been freed, although an estimated 50 have escaped.
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If the reports are true it would be a stunning diplomatic victory for the Nigerian president. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has announced it will declare Nigeria an Ebola Free Zone, a claim that the United States cannot make. International observers are praising Nigeria for its thoughtful and measured action in dealing with the Ebola crisis while faulting the United States for its arrogance and complacency in responding to the danger.
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Boko Harma, which means “Western Education is Forbidden” has received worldwide condemnation for its campaign of rape, murder and torture of children across Africa. An estimated 5,000 have been murdered this year.
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While many American news organizations have characterized the conflict in Nigeria as a war between Christians and Muslims, the toll of death and destruction has been markedly one sided with Christians refusing the fight back. Tracking by the Jubilee organization out of Fairfax, Virginia has shown that in the last two years more Christians have been killed in northern Nigeria alone than in all other countries of the world combined.
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Speaking before the Hudson Institute and other forums, Nigerian human rights activist, Emmanuel Ogebe offers a compelling litany of the atrocities of recent years.
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Bokko Haram suicide bombers attacked St.Finbarr’s Catholic Church in Rayfield killing 13, including the boy scouts who welcomed visitors and operated the church gate.
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More than 200 were killed in a single day of brutal massacres in Kano State.
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When Christians dared to vote in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, their city was burned to the ground by Islamic jihadists.
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Larger cities are no guarantee of safety. A prominent pastor was dragged from a taxi on a city street and stabbed to death for refusing to convert to Islam on the spot.
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A Church of Christ congregation was attacked in Jos Plateau State, killing two women, a one year old child and injuring 50.
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The countryside can be especially dangerous. 500 Christian villagers in Dogo Nahawa were massacred by Muslim herdsmen.
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In 2012, Muslims killed 88 villagers and burned 187 houses in Jos North. When survivors and mourners, led by a Christian Senator Gyang Dantong held a burial service the next day, the Nigerian Senator was, himself, murdered and 13 other mourners along with him.
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For several years, the United States government of president Barack Obama turned a blind eye to the calamity, refusing all calls to name Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. In December, 2012, then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton stunned African leaders by raising the alarm over the massacre of elephants while ignoring the human slaughter of Christians in nearby Nigeria. “Our goal is to inform more people about his crisis,” she said, of the threat to the elephants, “attacks are multiplying at an alarming rate.”
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In November, 2013, the United States, responding to widespread outrage from human rights organizations finally determined that the Islamic organization, Boko Haram, were indeed terrorists. At the same time the U.S. government insisted that news reports claiming that the terrorists were funded by Al Qaeda was false. Other news reports say that the group receives substantial financial support from British and Saudi Arabian Islamic communities.
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In April, 2014 the Boko Haram descended on the Northern Nigerian village of Chibok where they kidnapped 276 teenage girls from a State run boarding school. According to reports of girls who escaped, they were ordered at gunpoint to convert to Islam. Boko Haram announced that the the girls, some as young as 13, would be sold as wives or used as sex slaves by Islamic warriors.
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With the dramatic kidnapping of the Chibok girls politicians worldwide, including Democrat and Republican politicians in the United States who had been silent about the plight of Nigerian Christian civilians, rallied to “Bring back our girls.”
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If the recent Nigerian negotiations with the Boko Haram are true, it will result in a miracle return from captivity for the girls whose fate was was being mourned by millions worldwide.
Doug Wead 