Hope amid adversity

Days after a regional summit in Nigeria brainstormed ways of fighting Boko Haram, one of the girls kidnapped by the extremist group in Chibok was rescued yesterday. Found near a forested region near the border with Cameroon, she revealed that all the remaining girls remain in Boko Haram captivity in the jungle.

The kidnap of 276 girls from their school in northeastern Nigeria’s Chibok in 2014 had triggered a worldwide movement — Bring Back Our Girls — crossing regional ethnic and continental barriers. Even US First Lady Michelle Obama joined in by calling for swift action to free the girls who were students of an English-medium school in the West African nation.

Boko Haram, which means “western education is sin” in the local Hausa language, has been growing in strength over the years. It has increased the ferocity of its attacks but attempts at expanding the footprint have been smothered by the government that has cracked down hard after Muhammadu Buhari took over as president from the beleaguered Goodluck Jonathan.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, who often cocks a snook at the government with classic arrogance and fretful aggression, declared allegiance to the Islamic State last year. Shekau is known to release statements in which he challenges state power and the might of the government in Abuja. By having the girls kidnapped two years ago, he achieved international notoriety and Boko Haram gained strategic power and leverage in the face of a state onslaught.

After some girls escaped, the number of girls in Boko Haram custody was reduced to 219. The teenage girl found yesterday has a child. It is likely that most of the girls have been married off or are sexual slaves in the custody of Islamist militants.

Fledgling state structures and governance gaps weaken administrative machinery. Corruption thrives in such environments, creating a vicious cycle that is hard to break. This provides the right milieu for non-state actors like Boko Haram to flourish.

The intensity of the threat the militant Islamist organisation with its base in northeastern Nigeria’s Maidugiri poses can be gauged from the summit of leaders organised to fight the group. French President Francois Hollande, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and leaders of Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger attended the meeting.

An international strategy to fight Boko Haram has become imperative to stop it from mutating into a larger threat with help from bigger groups such as Islamic State and Al Qaeda.