2 Years of #Bringbackourgirls – PLSC 359: Global Governance

Remember the hashtag #Bringbackourgirls? I remember it as a phenomenon nearly a year ago. I also remember hearing something about the girls still being held by Boko Haram. What I do not remember is ever hearing the distinct details of the fact that since then, Boko Haram has kidnapped nearly 2,000 additional children from schools in Nigeria, caused more than a million students to flee, or that they have killed nearly 10,000 people in six years making them the deadliest terrorist group in the world. Why are they not getting more attention from global powers if they continue to grow and cause terror for the majority of a population?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/14/opinions/chibok-girls-symbol-ghitis/index.html

Boko Harama, a jihadist group, focused on two key aspects: education and women. They believe that western and modern education, especially of women, is a sin. My fear falls in their strength and capabilities in Nigeria. This may be an explanation of their lack of spotlight on the world stage; the idea that they are contained in Africa. The threat of ISIL definitely takes away from their news coverage as well. The greatest coverage they received was two years ago and the campaign with the famous hashtag, though now it has been two years and the kids are still being held against their will.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/14/opinions/boko-haram-girl-nwaubani/index.html

The current fear is that these girls and students have become indoctrinated and no longer understand their purpose. Some survivors who were released or escaped speak to the fact that they would have shot rescuers. More recently, a suicide bomber was found to be a kidnapped student from a Boko Haram camp. The hypocrisy in this situation is that these girls were the symbol of anti-terrorism for much of the world, and now they are transforming into the terrorists themselves. This alludes to numerous problems in the world, but the use of children, who are impressionable, is one of the greatest threats to global governance as these impressionable children will be trained to use radical means to execute radical beliefs of which they know nothing else. It is not only the respective state’s responsibility, but also the global community’s responsibility to protect and ensure the security of children world-wide. Which in my opinion, through rampant child slavery and indoctrination by terrorist groups, the global community is grossly failing.

Natalie Larsen-Palomino says:

April 23, 2016 at 12:12 pm

Julia, the first point that you bring up in this blog is a sad reality that occurs fairly often in many western countries. In a way it seems that issues in less developed countries get their “15 minutes of fame” which is immediately followed by widespread discourse in countries such as the U.S., but only to eventually fizzle out and become overlooked once again. Although I understand that there are so many problems in our world that it is impossible to focus on all of them at all times, I feel that it is wrong for issues to become a fad and then forgotten. While studying abroad in Barcelona, one of my apartment mates was a 23-year-old guy from Nigeria. It was interesting, while also very intense and disturbing, to get first hand accounts of what it is like to be living in Nigeria. What Boko Haram is doing is extremely alarming and definitely deserves more widespread attention than the few BBC articles I read on them once in while. Great post!

Casey Nolan says:

April 30, 2016 at 12:26 am

I certainly agree with you that Boko Haram is largely going unnoticed in the U.S. The terrorist group has progressed so much that the Nigerian president was quoted as saying that he would have the U.S. colonize Nigeria to escape from the threat of Boko Haram. One reason that it has not received as much attention is the lack of threat that it poses to the U.S. If we had a media that cared more about bringing justice to everywhere in the world, this group would certainly receive more attention. But maybe this goes further to the citizens and their self-interest. Does the average person care more about justice or about the group that has a greatest chance of harming them (even though that chance is debatably small)? We need a little more selfless amongst citizens, media, and leaders.