U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.) holds a press conference in Nigeria during his recent visit. (State Department)
June 22, 2014 at 9:00 AM, updated June 22, 2014 at 9:09 AM
By Chris Smith
On a four-day return visit to Nigeria this month, I met with one of the few young women who escaped the infamous mid-April Chibok School abduction by Boko Haram — a brutal, Sunni extremist terrorist group committed to eradicating Christianity, forced conversions to Islam, an end to all things "western" especially education, and the violent overthrow of the elected local and national governments.
When the Boko Haram vehicle that this brave 18-year-old Chibok student was riding in became disabled, she and others ran into the bush, hid and evaded recapture. Almost two months later, clearly she was still traumatized — you could hear it in her quivering voice and see it in her eyes. Yet she spoke mostly of her deep concern for her friends and classmates still in captivity and pleaded for their immediate rescue. I told her there can be no higher priority than bringing her classmates — and other abducted Nigerian girls — home.
In the capital city of Abuja, I also met with other survivors, including a 47-year-old woman whose two daughters were abducted by Boko Haram more than two years ago — in February 2012.
Weeping, she told me how a Boko Haram terrorist shot her husband simply because he was a Christian, then returned three months later and asked if her son had become a Muslim. He hadn’t — so he was executed on the spot. And in obvious agony, she told me she has no idea where her two girls are or how much abuse they’ve suffered at the hands of Boko Haram, or even if they are alive.
On another trip to Nigeria last September, I traveled to the city of Jos and visited several Christian churches that were firebombed by Boko Haram. Jos’ Catholic Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama and several Muslim clerics told me that Christian and Muslim leaders were working together for peace, reconciliation and to aid victims. Tragically, on May 20, Boko Haram bombings killed another 118 people and wounded 56. The archbishop reminded the world that Boko Haram targets Christians and is trying to destroy Christianity, but it "attacks Muslims as well who Boko Haram considers not Muslim enough."
At a Jos internally displaced persons camp, Habilia Adama told me that a Boko Haram terrorist shoved an AK-47 assault rifle in his nose and ordered him to renounce his Christian faith. He refused and said, "I am ready to meet my Lord," and was shot in the face and left for dead. He survived, and I invited him to Washington to tell his story. Not only is his faith and courage extraordinary, but he testified last year that he harbored no malice whatsoever toward the shooter and forgave him.
According to a recent report by the Internal Displaced Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council, there are 3.3 million Nigerian internally displaced persons — more than every other country in the world except Syria and Colombia.
According to the International Rescue Committee, due to credible fears of abduction, as many as 1,000 refugees a week — 80 percent women and girls — are fleeing to the nearby country of Niger from Nigeria’s Borno state alone — the site of the Chibok school. In the first three months of 2014 alone, the Nigerian military estimates that 1,500 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram — a shocking acceleration of their carnage.
While nothing has galvanized global opinion more than the mid-April Boko Haram abduction of hundreds of girls from Chibok School, abductions, murder, rape and coerced repudiation of Christianity have been commonplace for several years. Formed in 2002, Boko Haram went extremely violent in 2009.
For years, I chaired hearings, introduced legislation (the Boko Haram Terrorist Designation Act of 2013) and pushed the Obama administration to designate Boko Haram a foreign terrorist organization, but to no avail.
Activists of the protest group 'Bring back our Girls' rally in Abuja, Nigeria on June 12. 14. The women rally daily against the abduction of 200 schoolgirls in Chibok since earlier April this year. At a July 2012 hearing before my subcommittee, then-Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson played down the threat of Boko Haram, saying: "We believe that the larger element of Boko Haram is not interested in doing anything but attempting to discredit, disgrace the Nigerian government."
Additionally, in March 2012, House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) and terrorism subcommittee chair Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton requesting that Boko Haram be immediately designated a foreign terrorist organization to ensure that Treasury "and all other members of the U.S. Intelligence Community have every military, intelligence, diplomatic and economic tool at their disposal to disrupt and deter Boko Haram’s operations, planning and fundraising both internationally and domestically."
The secretary refused, even though other elements of the Obama administration also urged this designation.
It wasn’t until the day of my Boko Haram congressional hearing in November 2013 that the Obama administration, under Secretary of State John Kerry, finally designated Boko Haram a foreign terrorist organization — a move that was welcomed, but late.
This month, experts testified before my committee that a comprehensive strategy is required but remains elusive. One expert witness, Emmanuel Ogebe of the Jubilee Campaign, said, "Prior to the Chibok schoolgirl abductions, much of the international response was inattention and inaction. Now, it is attention, but inadequate action."
And Robin Renee Sanders, the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria from 2007 to 2010, told my committee last week that "Nigeria is in the beginning of a long war. ... There is no easy fix."
But we must get on an "aggressive offense that includes expanded highly trained special forces." She also said, "Current Nigerian security have never experienced anything like this. ... Boko Haram is executing asymmetrical warfare, and for the most part, this is outside ... their capability to effectively respond."
Today, the United States is providing critical counterinsurgency training to a very limited number of Nigeria’s military and in cooperation with the United Kingdom and France — important intelligence gathering. The number of human rights-vetted, specially trained Nigerian soldiers must immediately and exponentially increase or the tide may not turn.
The stakes — for the Chibok girls, Nigeria and countries in proximity to it — couldn’t be higher
.
No comments:
Post a Comment