WUNRN
#BringBackOurGirls: A Year after the Nigeria School Girl Abductions, Women & Girls Are Still in Danger
It’s AWID – 10/04/2015 – It has been one year since
the abduction by Boko Haram of 276 female students from their boarding school
in Chibok, Borno State in northeastern Nigeria. The #BringBackOurGirls campaign
began following the kidnapping, but the whereabouts of most of the young girls
remains unknown[1]. AWID spoke to Nigerian and Cameroonian feminist
activists to learn more about the situation of women and girls in Nigeria and
neighboring countries as well as the national and international response, and
challenges of taking appropriate and efficient action a year after the Chibok
kidnappings.
By Mégane Ghorbani -
AWID
Boko Haram, which translates to “Western education is
forbidden,” is an armed Islamist group that launches daily attacks against
civilians in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad. The group have staged various
attacks which include abducting unmarried women and young girls and executing
men. Human Rights Watch estimates the number of 2014 civilian
deaths following these attacks at no less than 3,750 and the 2015 number is
growing in comparison to the first quarter of 2014. Recently, Boko Haram
declared allegiance to the self-proclaimed Islamic State, adding additional concern in
terms of strengthened military and financial support.
Regional Conflict with
Multiple Humanitarian Concerns
The Islamic insurgency in northern Nigeria
can be traced back well before April 2014, to the early 1980s. Even
before Boko Haram was created in 2002, radical Islamic uprisings were taking
place in the city of Kano, where thousands of militants from the Maitatsine
sect were violently oppressed by the State. Nigerian activist and
Executive director of Kudirat
Initiative for Democracy (KIND) , Amy Oyekunle, explains,
“Since 2009, northeast Nigeria has been confronted with an insurgency byJama'atu
Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, generally known as Boko Haram. The
north-eastern part of Nigeria has been thrown into an atmosphere of violence
and insecurity brought on by activities of ‘Boko Haram’ that include bombings
and destruction of churches, schools, airports and other public places. The
sect indiscriminately kills people, rapes and abducts innocent women and girls
while spreading a spirit of fear across the State. They have destroyed millions
of Naira[2] worth of businesses, inhibited people’s livelihoods
thus exacerbating the high rate of poverty in the region. In the last two
years, the group has been attacking schools, teachers and students - over 900
schools in the northeast have been burnt, 176 teachers killed and hundreds of
girls and women abducted. The activities of Boko Haram have centered along
border towns around Maiduguri, but have now extended into parts of Cameroon and
Chad.”
The attack on Baga and surrounding
communities in the northeastern Nigerian State of Borno in January 2015, which
killed an estimated 2,000 people, is, “the largest and most destructive”
assault of Boko Haram according to Amnesty International. The escalation of violence
perpetrated by the Islamist group in the region is the origin of a number of
humanitarian consequences. In northern Cameroon the crisis situation in
is made all the more serious by high levels of poverty, food insecurity, and limited access to education, to water and
to health, which the region is already faced with the highest levels of poverty
are recorded in the North and the extreme-North, at 9.6% and 13.6% respectively
according to Cameroonian Universities Professor and researcher Luxe Bonnet Siwe[3].
Oyekunle also talks about the mass
displacements as a result of attacks, “Border towns around Maiduguri provide
markets for goods from Nigeria to other countries, and was also a thriving town
for fish farming and other activities. But all this has since ceased because
Boko Haram has attacked and burned markets, goods and killed people in these
towns. More importantly, fleeing Nigerians are moving en masseto
neighbouring towns, which also has severe consequence on their resources.”
According to the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE), nearly 1.5
million people were internally displaced in 2014, 70% of whom were women and
children. The January 2015 ACAPS briefing note suggests that 135,000
people have fled to neighbouring countries and that 9 million people are
currently affected by the violence in north-eastern Nigeria, of
which one third requires serious humanitarian assistance.
Extreme Violence
against Women and Girls
It is within this context that women and
girls are especially victims of the Boko Haram insurgency. “In the aftermath of
the kidnapping, many schools have been closed due to the high level of
insecurity and even where schools are open, parents are reluctant to send their
daughters and more likely to give them out in marriage to avoid kidnappings or
worse, death,” explains Oyekunle.
Women and girls are a particular target
for abduction by the group,[4] who, according to Human Rights Watch, have
abducted over 500 women and young girls since 2009. These women
and girls are generally victims of religious conversion, sexual violence,
forced marriage, and even murder[5]. In a video released in October 2014, leader of the
Islamist group, Abubakar Shekau, declared that over 200 female students
abducted from the Chibok boarding school had been converted and forced into
marriage. Some have been used as human shields or forced into suicide bombings
as part of attacks led by the Islamist group. The psychological trauma to this
new phenomenon is great and has caused further violence, such as the public
lynching in early March 2015 of a Nigerian suspected of being a Boko Haram
suicide bomber.
The Nigerian military forces have been
largely unsuccessful in countering Boko Haram and their persistent
attacks, and in fact in some instances military troops have also been
responsible for a number of atrocities that include burning houses,
assassinations, imprisonment of men and boys, and the rape and beating of women
and girls. During a KIND fact finding mission in May 2014, Oyekunle met women
and girls who had survived such violence and gathered some of their
testimonials about rape, physical molesting and psychological harassment by
military troops.
In addition, after surviving such
violence, women and girls who do finally return home are often shamed once reunited with their families, possibly pregnant,
infected with sexually transmitted diseases and dishonoured in the eyes of
their community.
Slow and Inadequate
National and International Response
The national, regional and international
response has been inadequate. The Government of Nigeria, responded very late to
the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, Oyekunle explains, “the lethargic
response of the nation’s government to the kidnappings elicited an outcry that
metamorphosed into a movement called #Bringbackourgirls. The campaign went
viral and drew national and international attention to the Chibok girls. The
campaign forced the government to put the issue of the girls and the incessant
attacks on the front burner. For instance, the government constituted a
Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE) and also the Victims Support
Fund for Borno State from June through August 2014.” In October 2014, Human Rights Watch denounced the failure of the Nigerian government to
adequately protect women and girls from a myriad of abuses, provide them with
effective support and mental health and medical care after captivity, ensure
access to safe schools and investigate or prosecute those responsible for
abuses. In this regard, there is still ambiguity around the effectiveness of the humanitarian aid schemes launched in August 2014 for
the victims of terrorism.
At the regional level response has also
been slow, the African Union launched a special multinational force - including
national security forces from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin - in
February 2015 to combat Boko Haram. Although these forces have been successful in dislodging Boko Haram from
certain areas, the exclusive concentration on military action
remains insufficient to handle the crisis.
In a context in which political[6] and financial[7] agendas influence governmental decision-making, civil
society will continue to mobilize to demand an appropriate short-term, mid-term
and long-term response that addresses gender-based violence, of which women and
girls are mostly victim in this crisis. Bonnet Siwe says that “despite
commitments made by Heads of State and Governments in their 2014 Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, issues related to
the well-being of women are not a priority. Policies need to take this into
account.” Oyekunle adds “The challenge is keeping the momentum. 2015 is an
election year for Nigeria and as a result the issue of the kidnapped girls has
been relegated in favour of other ‘pressing matters’“.
Oyekunle underscores that it was women’s
rights organizations in the region who made sure that the Chibok abduction was
not swept under the rug. “They mobilized others, provided funding for meetings,
psychosocial support and care for rescued girls and continue to do so until the
girls are brought back.” At an international level, a Global School
March will be held on 14 April 2015, among other mobilizing actions, to continue raising awareness
and calling on governments take concerted action to rescue the girls in Nigeria
and protect all schoolgirls around the world.
[1] 57 of the young girls managed to escape.
[2] The Nigerian currency
[3] Luxe Bonnet Siwe is professor and researcher at the
public Université de Yaoundé 1 and Université protestante d'Afrique Centrale de
Yaoundé and in private universities.
[4] According to Amy Oyekunle men are generally killed
while boys are recruited as foot soldiers in the Boko Haram army.
[5] Boko Haram would have carried out dozens of forced
marriages before the national army reclaimed Bama.
[6] Nigeria held presidential elections in March 2015
[7] The position of Chadian president Idriss Deby Itno
vis-à-vis Boko Haram is considered ambiguous in the eyes of some.