Boko Haram: Don't forget
Nigeria — In April, more than 200 Nigerian girls were abducted by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. In the immediate aftermath, Nigeria had the world’s undivided attention and in October, a rumor began circulating that the girls would be returned as part of a cease-fire [1] agreement between Boko Haram and the Nigerian government.
That didn’t happen. Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, says the girls have been sold [2] as child-brides while the group continues to terrorize [3] Nigerians. Meanwhile, international interest in the kidnapped girls has largely waned. This week, we’re bringing you three stats and a map highlighting Boko Haram and the conflict in northeast Nigeria.
- In April, the online effort to find the kidnapped girls centered on one hashtag: #bringbackourgirls [4]. Less than a month later, the BBC reported [5] that the hashtag had been used 3.3 million times. However, by July there were less than 7,000 [6] #bringbackourgirls tweets worldwide.
- This April abduction was not the first. According to Human Rights Watch, Boko Haram has kidnapped more than 500 women and girls [7] since 2009.
- In that same period of time, violence between Boko Haram and the government has reached unprecedented levels. In October, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies reported [8] that Boko Haram-related violence accounted for more than 40 percent of all the deaths included in their Nigerian Social Violence Dataset.
This interactive map [9] from the Council on Foreign Relations shows a state-by-state snapshot of where Boko Haram is most active in Nigeria.