Tag: #BringBackOurGirls

Nigeria: Tens of Thousands Flee after Recent Terror Attacks – 135,000 Have Fled Nigeria Due to Terrorism – Mostly Women and Girls

Reports from the United Nations and nations neighboring Nigeria are reporting that as many as 20,000 have fled Nigeria after recent Boko Haram terrorist attacks. This diaspora of Nigerians fleeing their nation have gone to neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Nigerians have fled their nation over the past 10 days after the Boko Haram attack on the Nigerian Borno state and the town of Baga.  Refugee status on Nigerians fleeing the Boko Haram terrorism have been coming in from the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR), neighboring nations to nations, and the news media.

The Boko Haram terrorism has led to 135,000 Nigerians fleeing their nation, and 850,000 displaced individuals from Nigerian areas attacked by terrorism. The majority of the refugees are women and girls fleeing the terrorist violence of their Nigerian homeland.

Reuters is reporting that “In the past 10 days, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates 6,000 Nigerian refugees have fled east into Cameroon and a further 1,500 have gone north to seek shelter in Niger. Chad estimates 13,000 people have entered its western Lake Chad region. Some have drowned in their attempt to flee, others have been left stranded on lake islands awaiting rescue boats.

The UNCHR has reported that more than 7,000 Nigerians have fled the Boko Haram terrorism for the nation of Chad, as a result of the recent attacks in the past 10 days in Nigeria’s Borno state. Chad is now hosting more than 10,000 refugees from Nigeria.

Nigerians Fleeing to Chad Waiting to be Registered by UNCHR (Source: UNCHR, Chad Red Cross, H. Abdoulaye)

At the end of November, the UNCHR reported that Boko Haram terrorism in the northern Nigerian town of Damassak left 50 people dead and forced at least 3,000 to flee to the Diffa region in neighboring country of Niger. Most of the refugees were women, children, older people, and some injured.

Nigerian girls who fled to Niger to escape terrorism (Source: UNCHR, H. Caux)
Older Nigerian Children Fled to Niger as Refugees from Terrorism (Source: UNCHR, H. Caux)

During the beginning of November, the UNCHR reported that 13,000 Nigerians fled Boko Haram terrorism for the nation of Cameroon in late October: “according to Cameroonian authorities, some 13,000 Nigerian refugees crossed from Adamawa state after insurgents attacked and captured the town of Mubi in late October. The refugees fled to the towns of Guider and Gashiga in the North region of Cameroon and to Bourha, Mogode and Boukoula in the Far North.”

Nigerian Refugees Flee to Cameroon from Terrorism (Source: UNCHR, D. Mbairoem)

The News Nigeria reports: “The United Nations on Tuesday said that the latest wave of Boko Haram’s ‘vicious, ruthless attacks’ in northeastern Nigeria had sent 11,320 people fleeing into Chad in a matter of days. The Islamist group stormed the town of Baga on January 3, and subsequently razed it and at least 16 surrounding settlements. While it has been impossible for aid workers to enter the area to verify accounts of the slaughter and of corpses rotting in the streets, the attack is feared to have been the worst massacre since Boko Haram’s deadly insurgency began in 2009. Some 20,000 people are said to have fled their homes in the area since the attack, and the UN refugee agency said Tuesday that some 11,320 people had arrived in neighbouring Chad alone. A full 60 percent of the new arrivals in Chad were women and girls, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters, adding that 84 unaccompanied children had also crossed over. Another 2,000 people had become stranded on an island in Lake Chad during their desperate escape, he said, adding that UNHCR was working to transport them to the mainland.”

The UNCHR states “the conflict in north-east Nigeria has led to the exodus of 135,000 people – around 35,000 Nigerians to Cameroon and 10,000 to Chad and the displacement of at least 850,000 people within Nigeria’s Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.”

Boko Haram’s War on Human Rights in Africa – 10,000 Killed in Past Year, 16 Towns Burned, 2,000 Killed or Missing in Past Week

The Global Terror Organization Boko Haram has been mounting an increasing war on the human rights and security of African people in multiple nations. Within the past week, this has included burning down 16 Nigerian towns and villages, killing many at a multinational military base, and international terrorist murders in Cameroon, as well as threatening Cameroon’s democracy. In the past year, Boko Haram-linked violence has resulted in over 10,000 violent deaths, based on studies developed by the by the Council for Foreign Relations (CFR). The terrorist group Boko Haram’s goals were previously focused on establishing “an Islamic state” in northeast Nigeria. It is now clear the Boko Haram has greater, international aims.

Update: On January 9, 2015, CNN has published this update that “[m]ore than 2,000 people were killed in attacks on 16 villages, said Musa Bukar, chairman of Kukawa local government, where Baga is located…. At least 30,000 people were displaced, authorities said.”

In October 2014, it was reported by the Director of Catholic Social Communication of Maiduguri Diocese, Rev. Gideon Obasogie, that Boko Haram had burned 185 churches, during Boko Haram’s attack and capture of 11 towns in Borno and Adamawa. He stated that over 190,000 people had been displaced.

In addition, Boko Haram has been holding over 200 schoolgirls that it kidnapped from schools in Chibok in the Nigerian Borno state in April 2014. News reports stated that the kidnapped (predominantly Christian) girls were “converted to Islam” and married to members of the Boko Haram terrorist organization for a “bride price” of $12.50. (This kidnapping has led to the social media campaign for their safe return, on Twitter at #BringBackOurGirls.) The London Times has reported that “more than 600 girls” have been kidnapped by the Boko Haram terror group. The name of the Boko Haram terror group translates into “Western education is sinful.”

The most recent wave of attacks began after a Boko Haram attack on January 3, 2015, where the global terrorist group overran a multinational military base for Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Cameroon in Baga in Nigeria’s Borno state. In addition to military killed in the attack, civilians fleeing the Boko Haram were also killed while trying to flee across nearby Lake Chad.

Earlier that week before the attack on the Baga base, Boko Haram had kidnapped about 40 young men from surrounding villages. Boko Haram reportedly ordered villages to “attend a sermon,” then kidnapped young men aged 10 to 23 years old from the villages.

Over the past five days, the global terrorist organization Boko Haram has declared a war on towns across Nigeria, especially in the Nigerian Borno state.

This has been an ongoing war by Boko Haram on civilians, which has been escalating for months. In September 2014, the Nigerian Daily Post reported that “the streets of the Bama [town] in Maiduguri have been taken over by littered corpses two days after the militants claimed authority over the second largest Borno town.”

Nigeria: Borno State - Corpses Line Streets in Bama Town - Boko Haram Claims Victory (Source: Nigerian Daily Post). Daily Post also stated "Boko Haram fighters are currently patrolling the streets of Bama, stopping residents from burying littered corpses."

In the past week, the Nigerian News reported the Boko Haram had destroyed at least 16 towns and villages in Nigeria. On January 8, 2015, some Nigeria media and NBC reported that included the Boko Haram capture of Baga, which was the last Nigerian-government controlled town in Northern Borno.

The AFP has reported such violence throughout Nigeria’s Borno state, from a local government and a union official. AFP reports: “‘They burnt to the ground all the 16 towns and villages including Baga, Dorn-Baga, Mile 4, Mile 3, Kauyen Kuros and Bunduram,’ said Musa Bukar, head of the Kukawa local government in Borno state.”

NBC reports that “more than 2,000 people are unaccounted for” after the Boko Haram torching of the Borno state towns and villages. Ahmed Zanna, a senator for Borno state where the attack happened, told NBC that “these towns are just gone, burned down… the whole area is covered in bodies.”

NBC also reports that Nigerians expect the Boko Haram to attempt to disrupt Nigerian national elections planned for February 14, 2015.

The terrorist group Boko Haram has demonstrated that it is more than a Nigerian-based terror threat with killings in Cameroon and further threats of violent attacks on Cameroon if it did not submit to Boko Haram. Since the beginning of the New Year, Boko Haram has been attacking Cameroon, and Boko Haram terrorists have reportedly killed 15 people in Cameroon.

As reported in numerous media, on January 7, 2015, a Boko Haram leader also issued a YouTube video to call for Cameroon to denounce democracy and to embrace Boko Haram’s religious views.

The UK Independent has reported that Boko Haram made the following threat and demands by video to the nation of Cameroon: “I advise you to desist from following your constitution and democracy, which is un-Islamic… The only language of peace is to repent and follow Allah, but if you do not then we will communicate it to you through the language of violence.”

Boko Haram Leader Threatens Cameroon in YouTube Video (Source: YouTube, The Independent)

Responsible for Equality and Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has other reports on the attacks against Christian churches and Nigerian citizens. R.E.A.L. posted a report on May 2014 attacks where 50 churches were burned and 500 Christians killed. R.E.A.L. posted a report on October 2014 attacks where 185 churches were burned and over 190,00 displaced.

In November 2013, the U.S. Department of State designated Boko Haram as a Global Terrorist Organization (GTO), which Boko Haram is increasingly demonstrating by its international terrorist activities. Boko Haram has been linked to other global terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, all of which seek to deny universal human rights to our fellow human beings.

Our support for the Universal Human Rights of all people must be for all nations, all continents, and every place on Earth. We seek to be responsible for equality and liberty for the oppressed people in Africa and every part of our shared world. We must call upon the nations of the world to take action to stop the growing violence and threat from the international terrorist organization Boko Haram, their kidnapping of children, their efforts to deny freedom of conscience, and their rejection of our shared universal human rights of equality, liberty, dignity, and security. We call for the President of the United States to also make a statement and offer his support to Nigeria and the African nations affected by this global terror groups actions, and to end their reign of terror over children and the people of Africa.