Jihadists Kidnap Nearly 300 Nigerian Children

Ten years ago Boko Haram abducted over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria.  The incident horrified the world and launched the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.  Sadly, this campaign was not fully successful as 98 of these girls either remain missing or are confirmed to be dead.  Now, a similar disaster has struck Nigeria once again.  

For the nation of Nigeria the month of March opened with scores of abductors in service of Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) attacking Nigeria's Northern Kaduna State.  Around 8am, just as the school day was starting, gunmen surrounded the school and kidnapped an estimated 287 boys and girls between ages 8-15.  The abducted girls will likely be forcibly converted to Islam and married off to their abductors, much like what happened to many of the Chibok girls while the boys will likely be indoctrinated and trained into serving as child soldiers, and may even be assigned suicide bombing missions.  Tragically, these kidnappings are beginning to become the norm in Nigeria with the past four years witnessing four massive kidnapping attacks in the Kaduna region alone.  

This attack occurred only a few days after gunmen kidnapped nearly 200 women and children from and IDP camp in Borno State.  Many inhabitants of these refugee camps state that the camps are unsafe and that they are constantly prone to attacks and kidnapping.  

Ngala Refugee Camp

 Many inhabitants of these refugee camps state that the camps are unsafe and that they are constantly prone to attacks and kidnapping. Making matters worse is that the ongoing attacks have completely overwhelmed the IDP refugee camps.  The Ngala camp alone is serving over 70,000 households that are completely undersupplied & understaffed.  This leads many in the camp to choose to return to Boko Haram or to simply take their chances "living off the land" as they are finding little support inside of the IDP camps.  

Even now, as the world still calls on Hamas to release their remaining Israeli hostages, Jihadists on other fronts are now kidnapping even more.  The cycle of violence is never-ending, and for some, news reports like this aren't even seen as surprising anymore, it has become the norm.  The truth of the matter is that what happened in Nigeria has been happening for centuries.  The doctrine of Jihad has been part of Islam from the beginning.  The 14th century writer Ibn Khaldum wrote "In the Muslim community, the Holy War is a religious duty, because the universalism of the Muslim mission is to convert everybody to Islam by persuasion or by force."  The tragic reality is that these attacks have become "the norm" in our world today, but the world refuses to accept the reality that these attacks are likewise "the norm" of Islamic doctrine.  

Sources:

Asadu, Chinedu.  "Gunmen Abduct 287 Students in the Latest School Attack in Nigeria's Northwest, Headteacher Says."  Associated Press.  March 07, 2024.  Accessed from https://apnews.com/article/nigeria-kaduna-chikun-school-abduction-395e86da2a07155f473e73b00006f466.

Carter Sara.  "Mass Kidnappings from Nigeria School Show 'The State Does Not Have Control' One Expert Says.  CBS News.  March 11, 2024.  Accessed from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nigeria-kidnapping-schools-state-does-not-have-control-expert/.

Steinhauser, Gabrielle.  "Jihadists Kidnap Scores of Children in Nigeria."  Wall Street Journal.  March 07, 2024.  Accessed from https://www.wsj.com/world/africa/jihadists-kidnap-scores-of-children-in-northeast-nigeria-7c3da0dc?mod=itp_wsj,djemITP_h.

Suleiman, Aliyu.  "IDP's to Zulum: We're Tired of Staying in Camps."  21st Century Chronicle.  April 17, 2022.  Accessed from https://21stcenturychronicle.com/idps-to-zulum-were-tired-of-staying-in-camps/.