generalspeaking

Forbidding Western Taint

"Everybody is living in fear. There is no protection. We cannot predict where and when they are going to attack. People can't sleep with their eyes closed."
Nigerian local government chairman Maina Ularamu

The president had declared a state of emergency in May when towns and villages were held captive by Boko Haram. At that time the military forced them out of urban areas. And celebrated a job well done, the problem erased, the country could continue living life without concerns for their return. But members of Boko Haram regrouped in forests and mountain caves, bringing in new conscripts.

And so, fresh atrocities are surging. And those who have managed to survive the deadly assaults now claim there is no protection being offered them by the military. Soldiers who guarded a checkpoint near the Federal Government College, a northeast Nigerian school at Buni Yadi, 70 kilometres from the state capital Damaturu, somehow went astray.

And then a full-scale attack erupted. Certainly an odd coincidence.

Boko Haram terrorists set upon the school in a pre-dawn attack on Tuesday. They locked a school dormitory with male students inside, and set it ablaze. When students attempted their desperate escapes, they were shot, some had their throats slit as they escaped through windows. And many were burned alive in the blaze.

Female students, according to a spokesman for the governor, were spared violence when the attackers ordered them to leave, go back home, get married; abandon Western education forbidden by Islamic values. Governor Ibrahim Gaidam is expected to launch an inquiry to determine why the school was left unprotected, according to Adamu Garba, a teacher who witnessed students being gunned down.

The eight soldiers who are responsible for the checkpoint, and another thirty, based two kilometres distant were away from their posts. They finally arrived, at noon, long after the attackers had gone, according to the community leaders, busy burying 29 male students. Several soldiers have been accused of aiding the extremists, of passing information to them.

Tens of thousands of Nigerians have died, others have had their homes, their businesses, their possessions and livelihoods lost both by the atrocities launched by Boko Haram, and the fallout of a military state of emergency through soldiers accused of human rights violations, setting villages on fire, and committing suspects to summary executions.

And, as President Goodluck Jonathan has said, the ongoing attacks by the Islamist terrorists are "quite worrisome".

Labels: Africa, Atrocities, Islamism, Terrorism, Violence

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, February 27, 2014