The Baga massacre

It’s understandable why  France – and most of the world – would mourn and be furious over the barbaric killings of 12 journalists and five  citizens and policemen  by a widely perceived bunch of Muslim terrorists on Jan. 7 in Paris. The top leaders of several  countries – excluding the United States for an unexplained reason – joined a rally of  3.7 million individuals showing a united stand against terrorism believed to be targeting  Jews, beginning with the shooting down of the Jan. 7 victims.  The slayers, after killing their prey, declared that they had avenged Mohammed, who had been caricatured by  the French weekly news magazine Charlie Hebdo — the French weekly news magazine known for its satirizing of world figures and issues – a no-no to Muslims who are never allowed to even draw a picture of their prophet. The global coverage of  the funeral procession for the three slain policemen was extensive, the newscasters saying they had died to defend their countrymen’s freedom.

This columnist joins the men and women who are mourning not only for the loss of their spouses, relatives and friends, but also for the abridgement of journalists’ freedom to express themselves. As we know,  a country is not free if its citizens  do not enjoy the freedom to express their opinions.

What is appalling for me, though, is the lack of news coverage of a deplorable development in Nigeria, compared with the coverage of the anti-Jew terrorist attacks in France.

The question being asked by concerned observers is, Why did the world ignore Boko Haram’s Baga attacks?

The local newspapers have carried syndicated stories about the Boko Haram’s killing of an estimated 2,000 persons – men and women and children, without discrimination – in the town of Baga in the northeastern state of Borno in Nigeria, on Jan. 3 . Amnesty International has described the terror group’s “deadliest massacre.” One reason for the measly coverage of the killings is that in northern Nigeria, reporting is notoriously difficult, with journalists being targeted by Boko Haram. “Unlike in Paris, people on the ground are isolated, and struggle with access to the internet and other forms of communication. Attacks by Boko Haram have disrupted connections further, meaning that there is an absence of an online community able to share news, photos and video reports of news as it unfolds.”  

Reports of the massacre, however, have managed to come through. But the question being asked is why the killings have not garnered the attention of the world.

What is the Boko Haram? Relying on Wikipedia, we learn that the name “Boko Haram” is translated as “Western education is forbidden,” and has been translated as “Western influence is a sin” and  ”Westernization is sacrilege.”

According to Wikipedia, Boko Haram was founded as a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist sect advocating a strict form of sharia law and developed into a Salafist-jihadi group in 2009, influenced by the Wahhabi movement. It seeks the establishment of an Islamic state in Nigeria, and opposes the westernization of Nigerian society that has concentrated the wealth of  the country among a small political elite, mainly in the Christian south of the country. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest economy, but 60 percent of its population of 73 million live on $1 a day.

A big story that caught global attention was the kidnapping of 276 school girls in Chibok, Borno, in April 2014. This must have been in line with the organization’s rejection of  education among females. The terrorist group’s leader,   Abubakar Shekau, who has a reward of $7 million offered by the US government since June 2013 for information leading to his capture, announced his intention of selling the girls into slavery.  Shekau later stated that the girls had been “married off.”

The incident was brought to global media attention, much of it focused on the pronouncements of  US First Lady Michelle Obama. So far, only 50 girls have managed to escape. But so far, the remaining kidnapped girls have not been released, notwithstanding the “#BringBackOurGirls” political campaign posters in the streets of the capital, for which Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan was criticized as part of his  pre-presidential campaign for next month’s election.

For us to understand the troubled situation in Nigeria, here’s a story by Elizabeth Donnelly specially written for CNN. Elizabeth is the Africa assistant head and research fellow of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, with a focus on West Africa politics.

She writes that in one month Nigerians will vote in what may be “the country’s most competitive and contentious elections yet. But this important process will take place in the shadow of a worsening threat — Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgent group otherwise known as Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’await wal-Jihad, which killed as many as 2,000 people in the northeastern town of Baga on January 3.”

“The attacks of the past few weeks — Boko Haram’s biggest ever in terms of casualties on Baga, and on markets using children to detonate devices — have drawn international focus back to the crisis.

“But such appalling events are not new – they are an intensification, a next step in a crisis which has steadily worsened since Boko Haram’s 2010 reemergence. And they raise a number of Questions about the trajectory of the insurgency and the response to it.”

Why Boko Haram takes Baga now, Elizabeth writes: “For Boko Haram, taking Baga — a small town in Nigeria’s Borno State – closes a gap in its map, fulfills a strategic purpose with its proximity to the border with Chad, where it is reported to have set up camps on islands in Lake Chad, and further bolsters its resources and sense of confidence with a win over a multinational military force.

“The most recent attack was not the first fighting Baga had seen: in April 2013 nearly 200 people were killed and around 2,000 homes burnt by insurgents and soldiers in attacks and counterattacks, according to Human Rights Watch. Baga was already vulnerable.”           

 Elizabeth writes of events since 2009 that can be seen as markers in the next stage of Boko Haram’s evolution: The extrajudicial killing of the movement’s  founder  Mohammed Yusuf in 2009, the 2011 suicide attack on police headquarters in Abuja, the 2013 introduction of the state of emergency in three northeastern states, last year’s killing of schoolboys and abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls. “The scale of the killings in Baga and the  reported use of children,  perhaps as young as ten, to carry and detonate bombs is Boko Haram’s further pushing the boundaries of what it will do.”

 The 7th Division of the Nigerian army has been struggling to resolve effectively to an insurgency that abducts and uses civilians.  The federal  government has been silent or has delayed response to those many attacks.

 “The West,” writes Elizabeth, “ should be worried because of the human cost of the Boko Haram crisis and the legacy this violence will leave. . . . . “          

The international community, writes Elizabeth, “could do more to speak with one voice and coordinate better amongst itself to galvanize further and faster action in Nigeria, back those agencies and actors which are making progress, and identify gaps for greater support. An immediate priority is humanitarian relief and energies need to be focused on how to get essential help to internally displaced people and refugees.”

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 My email:dominitorrevilla@gmail