This Ongoing War: A Blog: 1-May-14: Demanding action for the hundreds of abducted young Nigerian women, victims of Islamist terrorists

Thursday, May 01, 2014

1-May-14: Demanding action for the hundreds of abducted young Nigerian women, victims of Islamist terrorists

From a Nigerian news site today [Image Source]

As an expression of our respect for the work of two Paris-based organizations, Mouvement Pour la Paix et Contre le Terrorisme (Movement for Peace and Against Terrorism) and l’Alliance Internationale Contre le Terrorisme (International Association Against Terrorism), we think it's important to generate the widest public awareness of the English-language version of a public statement they issued a few days ago.

(There's updated background here [Washington Post, April 30, 2014] on the plight of the 234 abducted victims.)

Mass Kidnapping of Female Nigerian Students by Boko Haram Islamists | Demand their immediate and unconditional release!

[STATEMENT] The Islamist terror group Boko Haram has been harming the people of Nigeria for a decade. Its activities have grown even more murderous. Since the start of 2014, Boko Haram's terrorists have carried out 40 attacks, causing more than 1,500 casualties. In just two weeks, hundreds of innocent Nigerians were slaughtered in multiple Boko Haram terror attacks. During the the evening of Monday April 14, 2014, armed men perpetrated the mass kidnapping of female students about to take their exams. The unfortunate girls were abducted and taken away on trucks. A handful managed to escape, but most of them are still kept hostages and in great danger.

They must all be able to study and take their exams! They must all be freed! They must all be saved! The plight of these innocent students and their families demand our vigorously expressed support.

The targeting of schools and the attempted prohibition of education for girls form a major part of the Boko Haram strategy to forcibly create an Islamic state in Nigeria. Like the Taliban, the Boko Haram seek to prevent and forbid education in all its modern forms.

The government of France officially condemned the kidnapping of the young Nigerian women as it condemned the murderous terror attack perpetrated on the same day at the Nyana bus station near Abuja.

The European Union, the United Nations, UNICEF and UNESCO must live up to their responsibility to protect these innocents, and to stand up for their right to be educated without fear.
We call on the relevant authorities to immediately add Boko Haram to the list of outlawed terrorist organizations.
The Boko Haram leadership is guilty of crimes against humanity and must be promptly arrested and tried.
In Nigeria, as in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the United Nations, UNICEF and UNESCO must protect all students who risk their lives by attending schools as well as their teachers.

We, civil society organizations and citizens, commit ourselves to solidarity with those anonymous Malalas, to whom education is forbidden, and to all those who want to resist terrorism.

A long list of signatories to the original statement appears here. You can sign an online-petition here.

More information: Huguette Chomski Magnis, Paris: Phone +33-6-66-26-42-23 mpctasso@aol.com [Original French version is here.]

For background, here are some of our previous blog posts about the Boko Haram Islamists:

5-Nov-11: Tentacles again in west Africa, and the toll is shooting upwards

22-Sep-13: A quiet weekend

9-Oct-13: A very bad month, says New Yorker mag, with worse probably ahead.

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