generalspeaking

"I Abducted Your Girls"

"I will sell them in the market, by Allah. I will marry off a woman at the age of 12. I will marry off a girl at the age of nine."
"I said Western education should end. Girls, you should go and get married."
Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram chief, Nigeria

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and wife Patience

"She told so many lies, that we just wanted the government of Nigeria to have a bad name, that we did not want to support her husband's rule."
"They said we are Boko Haram, and that Mrs. Nyadar is a member of Boko Haram."
Saratu Angus Ndirpaya, demonstrator

The abduction of almost 300 schoolgirls from a small town where their school was located, has created a panic of anxiety in the country over the missing girls, two of whom were said to have died in captivity from snakebites, twenty of whom are ill, and the rest suffering various categories of fearful conditions, including forced 'marriage' to some of the Boko Haram Islamists who took them captive. Some have been spirited away, ostensibly for sale.

In a major security operation undertaken by the Nigerian government, a hunt for the abducted students has yielded no results whatever. The government's reaction to the mass abduction has left much to be desired. Anxious parents, griefstricken at the loss of their children, accuse the government of disinterest and inaction, and they don't seem to be far off the mark considering the relaxed government attitude over the atrocity.

Those schoolgirls, some thirty in number who managed to save themselves while they were being loaded for transport by escaping their captors can consider themselves fortunate indeed. Another eight schoolgirls have since been abducted. They are considered fair game as prey by the fanatical Islamists. The failure of the military to immediately launch a rescue mission from the depraved clutches of the jihadists is inexplicable.

Protesters have accused their president of insensitivity to the plight of the schoolgirls with good reason. The president's wife had ordered the arrests of two demonstration leaders, accusing them of being members of Boko Haram, and amazingly, expressing her personal doubt that any such abduction had ever occurred. If it never took place, it makes sense that her husband had no reason to trouble himself about a rescue.

As far as the president's wife was concerned those who were critical of her husband themselves fabricated the abduction story. Mrs. Jonathan was said to have been outraged that though she had invited the mothers of the missing girls to attend a meeting, none arrived. A protest organizer explained the women were unable to make the journey from the remote northeastern town, on time for the meeting.

The "timeline was too short", said Hadiza Bala Usman. No flights exist, and the town, Chibok, is several days' distant in a road trip. For his part, the president has stated he has sought assistance from Britain, France and the United States. "Both the Americans and the French have satellite systems that could be used to provide photography, although it would be something of a needle in a haystack job", said a satellite technology expert.

"The other option is using unmanned aerial vehicles, which can circle areas repeatedly and build up patterns of activity." Both the United States and France operate drones out of a new base at an airfield in neighbouring Niger. Meanwhile, Boko Haram skulks about, psychopathic predators punishing young girls for their arrogance in seeking a Western-type education when they have been warned against such a crime against fanatical Islam.

Labels: Crisis Management, Gender Equality, Islamism, Nigeria, Terrorism

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, May 07, 2014