Africa Center Assistant Director Joshua Meservey writes for US News and World Report on why encouraging Nigeria’s government to change its approach to the terrorist organization Boko Haram is key to preventing future attacks in the country:
Three weeks after more than 200 girls were kidnapped by the Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram from their school in the northern Nigerian town of Chibok, momentum is building to secure their release. Tragically, however, the many shortcomings of the Nigerian military and the ruinous tactics it has used in the war against Boko Haram make a happy ending to the heartbreak unlikely. International partners are sending assistance, but the greatest aid they can give is to press the Nigerian government to change its approach to fighting Boko Haram. Only the group’s defeat can ensure there are no more atrocities of this type.
The kidnappings were the latest abomination from the group that has been bloodying Nigeria since 2010 in a string of increasingly brazen attacks. On a grainy video recording released Monday, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, taunted the Nigerian government with claims that he would sell his captives into marriage or slavery, triggering shock and anger throughout the world. Both #BringBackOurGirls and “Boko Haram” trended on Twitter. Protests aimed at stirring the Nigerian government to action spread throughout major Nigerian cities and into some Western metropolises, and world leaders offered help.