Terror outfit abducts girls, world leaders wake up
In response to a global public outcry, fuelled primarily through social media, world leaders are finally paying attention to the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria by Islamist terror outfit Boko Haram. This could not have happened a day sooner. The girls were taken more than a month ago, on April 14, from the northern town of Chibok, and for weeks afterwards, few outside of Nigeria seemed to be bothered. The Government of Nigeria, hardly known for its efficiency, failed to respond adequately. It goes without saying that had such an incident happened in any other part of the globe or if the victims were citizens of the developed world, the international community would have acted more promptly. Nonetheless, it is better late than never. The US, UK and Israel have now joined hands with the Nigerian Government to search for the missing girls. Washington, DC has sent drones and manned surveillance planes as well as military, law enforcement and development experts; london has sent a Sentinel surveillance plane, offered to embed one team at the Nigerian military headquarters and another with international groups analysing intelligence from the hunt, and promised more funding for a Safe Schools Initiative; and counter-terrorism experts from Tel Aviv will be joining them soon. On Saturday, France will hold a major security summit in Paris that will have in attendance the Nigerian President, Mr Jonathan Goodluck, leaders of Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and representatives from the US and the UK. Earlier, defence chiefs from the Economic Community of West African States had met in Ghana to discuss the situation. Canada and China have also offered help.
Notably, the international community's efforts are focused on the immediate problem of rescuing the missing girls, while the bigger battle against Boko Haram has been left to the Nigerian Government. In doing so, the West has sidestepped the inevitable pitfalls of a foreign military intervention of the kind it launched in Iraq, Afghanistan or even libya, while still playing its part to resolve an international humanitarian crisis. This is as it should be. The Nigerian Government has been fighting Boko Haram since 2009 and has managed to push back the group to some extent. It is true that the Goodluck Government has been criticised for a lacklustre counter-terror campaign. Hopefully, so much international attention alongside rising domestic criticism will pressure the Government to perform better.
The most disappointing aspect of the international response has emanated from the Muslim world. For weeks after the mass abduction, Muslim leaders around the globe maintained a studied and troubling silence — despite the fact that Boko Haram had, in the name of Islam, victimised other Muslims. It was only after the international media questioned their attitude that Muslim organisations have now begun to publicly condemn Boko Haram. Egypt's Al-Azhar Mosque and Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti have called for the immediate release of the girls. leading Indian Muslim clerics, including the head of Darul Uloom Deoband, as well as a clutch of Muslim organisations in the US and the UK, have also finally denounced the terror outfit.