Boko Haram Attackers Set Village Ablaze, Kill Dozens in Nigeria

By Rob Schwarzwalder Published on February 6, 2016

That’s one of this week’s most significant international headlines. Gruesome and heart-rending, it discourages much consideration — perhaps a quick prayer — because of the sense of helplessness it evokes.

Boko Haram, which seems to be in a sordid competition with other Islamic terrorist groups for greatest brutality, operates largely in northern Nigeria and surrounding countries. Last Saturday, it struck again, this time in “Dalori village and two nearby camps housing 25,000 refugees.” As reported in USA Today, “The Associated Press said it spoke to a survivor who said he watched Boko Haram extremists firebomb huts and heard the screams of children burning to death. Survivor Alamin Bakura told the AP that several of his family members were killed or wounded in the attack, which lasted for nearly four hours.”

According to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s just-published Global Terrorism Index, the radical Islamic group Boko Haram (BK) has overtaken ISIS in the sickening race to see who can commit the most murders in a single year. The Index attributes 6,644 killings to Boko Haram and 6,073 to ISIS. So, in the catalog of human depravity, BK is up by a few hundred.

Emmanuel Ogebe, a courageous Nigerian attorney and committed Christian, has documented Boko Haram’s devastation extensively and spoke last summer at FRC’s headquarters about the group. Commenting on this week’s attacks, Emmanuel noted that “Boko Haram has been effectively engaging in a coordinated regional insurgency affecting four West African countries — an operational footprint that rivals its Mideast ally, ISIS. Today, BH is still deploying, with deadly efficacy, female suicide bombers. Between June 2014 when the first female suicide bomber detonated in Nigeria and the end of 2015, over 70 females, including 10 year old girls were used as suicide bombers.”

Yet these numbers could well be low. “Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State — also known as ISIS or ISIL — and killed about 20,000 people and driven 2.5 million Nigerians from their homes over a six-year period,” according to USA TodayAccording to the Defense Department, “Boko Haram ‘officially’ joined the (ISIS) terror network” in 2015. “Since then, what we’ve seen is an enhancement of Boko Haram’s propaganda and messaging efforts. … That has been the most apparent result of the ISIL-Boko Haram ties. Their videos are more professional and tighter. They speak like an ISIL affiliate.”

Today the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative held a news conference at the National Press Club to announce the publication of an International Religious Freedom Congressional Scorecard later this year. During the question-and-answer period, I asked former Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA), the head of the Initiative and the William Wilberforce of our time, about what America and other countries can do about Boko Haram.

He said that we have to recognize that Boko Haram is identical to ISIS. He noted that religious liberty champion and another great FRC ally, Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organization Subcommittee, is the only Member of Congress who has visited visit Nigeria to investigate Boko Haram. Mr. Wolf called for other congressional delegations to visit the areas where Boko Haram has committed its atrocities and then hold hearings about what is taking place.

Clearly, Nigeria needs help. The tiny Nigerian army — about 100,000 strong in a nation of nearly 190 million — is inadequate to the task. Increasing its size and expertise is imperative. The United States has provided some assistance; in September of last year, President Obama “delegated authority to the Secretary of State to direct the drawdown of up to $45 million in defense articles and services, as well as military education and training, to support Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria’s efforts to defeat Boko Haram.” Most recently, the U.S. gave Nigeria 24 armored personnel carriers.

American military engagement in Africa is minimal and, given the already-stretched American armed forces, it is difficult to envision “boots on the ground” in any substantial number in the near future. Nigeria is a key ally of the United States. We should continue offering the Nigerian government military advisors, training, and materiel to help its armed forces expand in numbers and expertise.

Clearly, Boko Haram is an existential threat. A New York Times headline last month reported that “Military Victories Over Boko Haram Mean Little to Nigerians.” As the article said, “Though the Nigerian military has arrested and killed many fighters — and more crucially, retaken a swath of territory once held by insurgents that is estimated to be as large as Belgium — the gains have come against a backdrop of relentless suicide bombings that, if anything, have escalated.”

So, what can Christians do?

Pray.  Pray for their brothers and sisters in Christ in Nigeria, The Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, and everywhere else in Africa threatened by the demonized killers of Boko Haram. Pray for those in Boko Haram itself, many of whom have been forced at the point of a gun to join and stay with its crazed volunteers. Pray for the government of Nigeria, which needs courage and wisdom as it works to defeat this repulsive military cancer penetrating its national life.

We must also call on the Obama administration to elevate international religious persecution as one of the central facets of its foreign policy. Family Research Council has been urging the Administration to do this for years, and we applaud the rather recent appointments of such international religious liberty advocates as Rabbi David Saperstein and Knox Thames to positions in the State Department where they can make a difference. But given Mr. Obama’s diminishment of religious liberty at home, it is questionable, at best, that he will be a stout advocate for it abroad. He has not been to this point. With our other prayers, we can pray he will have a change of heart as the final year of his time in office begins.

 

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