“Children Pawns in Terror War”
Critical essay by Amanda Hao (12).
Child abduction is one of the fastest-growing segments of the Nigerian economy, a predatory practice that has generated sought-after publicity and millions of euros in ransom for the captors.
The Islamist extremist group Boko Haram was largely unknown outside of the country until April 2014, when it kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from the Chibok Government Secondary School, triggering global outrage; 112 students are still missing or in the jihadist group’s custody. According to human rights organizations, more than 2,000 women and children have been kidnapped in the West African nation since 2012. Girls are considered war booty; boys are conscripted to fight. The conflict has displaced more than 2.6 million people in the destitute region of northwest Nigeria.
Hauwa Ntakai, rescued in 2018 as part of a large-scale multi-government effort, is now safe, but she worries about her sister, still in the clutches of a terrorist organization that brutally beats and rapes its prisoners.
While Ntakai’s sister is still missing, one Chibok schoolgirl was freed seven years after the initial kidnapping. Of the 276 girls, 24 were released or found and 82 were freed in 2017. However, terrorism and fighting in the region continues to splinter families.
Worse, other Nigerian towns have been the target of kidnap-for-ransom attacks. As of Aug. 2, more than 1,000 Nigerians — students and staff — were abducted in the previous eight months. Local gangs, recognizing a lucrative business opportunity, quickly escalated the scale of abductions and violence as Boko Haram infiltrated the country.
Founded in 2002, the group’s primary objective is to establish an Islamic state under Sharia law, which prohibits Muslim particiption in any political or social activity associated with the West. Boko Haram, which means “Western education is forbidden,” launched military operations in 2009. The United States declared it a terrorist organization in 2013.
No one, it seems, looks at what these groups are doing when they're not fighting. Yet, armed struggle and politics are closely related. Terrorist organizations are not just hordes of extreme, rage-driven barbarians. They also forge strong bonds with the population by investing in social services. Hezbollah, ISIS, and other radical groups create social and religious programs, medical centers, and economic opportunities in places where hope comes to die.
Ignorance of the socioeconomic and cultural connections to extremist violence has contributed to a poor and inflammatory response to foreign intervention in the Sahel. The ecozone stretches across the middle of the African continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea — a belt of land below the Sahara Desert and above the Sudanian Savanna. Much of the wilderness is grasslands, although urbanization has taken a toll on the once-pristine environment.
The same groups that are killing innocent civilians are building bonds of trust and security with the populace. French colonialism and decades of intervention, with both good and ill intentions, have created terrible conditions that have molded the ideologies and social structure of the Sahelian people. In a region distinguished by poverty, where crops cannot grow because of military pollution and old land mines, there is little communities can do to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. That impotence spawns the need for an enemy — America, the West, anyone. It also gives rise to violent opposition groups that have more extreme agendas. Terrorist groups have not been a permanent fixture in the Middle East; they evolved in the wake of foreign interference and wretched living conditions.
Native resentment of the West is understandable. During the Scramble for Africa, which occurred between the 1880s and the start of World War I, European countries laid claim to the continent. Europe, driven by commercial interests, added nine million square miles — 20 percent of the land on earth — to its overseas possessions during this period. Britain took 30 percent of Africa’s population under its control, compared to 15 percent for France, 9 percent for Germany, and 7 percent for Belgium. Nigeria alone contributed 15 million subjects. By 1914, only Liberia and Ethiopia were self-governing.
The unstable region is still reeling from decades of imperialism. Help is desperately needed, but conventional approaches are a non sequitur in the Sahel. To douse anti-Western fervor and extremist violence, governments in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso should only cooperate with local organizations, not outside forces that rekindle memories of neocolonialism. Countries with a sincere interest in forging peace must recognize the inherent danger of Western intervention in an unstable and turbulent region.
Instead of troops on the ground, these nations should offer intelligence, arms, and jet refueling to the African Union (AU). The organization is dedicated to the security and prosperity of the continent, and has a history of successful peace initiatives. AU involvement would address the issue of extremist violence more effectively and delicately. Simply put: it knows the terrain, is trusted, and has the best interests of the Sahel at heart.
Besides political strife, the region is under assault from other forces. Although vaccines have been developed to combat the global coronavirus pandemic, influential Muslim clerics must decide which products are ”halal,” or allowed, under Islamic law. Pork gelatin is used to stabilize many vaccines. Medicine laced with the smallest amount of pork DNA could dissuade conservative followers from inoculation.
Nigeria, a deeply religious country, is home to Africa’s largest Muslim and Catholic populations. The Vatican announced in December 2020 that COVID-19 vaccines are “morally acceptable” for Catholics who might be opposed to medicine developed with stem cells from fetuses aborted decades ago.
In addition, the Sahel has experienced drought since the 1960s, a recurrent scourge over the past 12,000 years. Once home to lush fields of crops and arable land, the area has been transformed into a dry, barren expanse. The arid conditions have been made permanently worse by climate change. The Sahel, which stretches across Africa like a serpent, has experienced a 50 percent increase in record dry months in recent decades. Climate change has killed one of every six trees in the Sahel since the 1950s. Because inhabitants depend on trees for soil fertility, firewood, hut poles, and other essentials, they are directly harmed by the loss.
The weather is taking a grim toll on farmers and herders, who are rapidly losing their livelihoods to humanity’s reckless stewardship of the planet. As the climate crisis nears the point of no return, the 21st century’s brand of repentance — an apology — will not suffice. Solutions demand a sea change of thinking.
There are ways to combat environmental destruction, however. Land can be restored by halting overgrazing and deforestation. About 166 million hectares — almost three times the size of Kenya or France — have been identified as candidates for reforestation. Left unchecked, though, two-thirds of the arable land in the Sahel could be lost to deforestation by 2025, creating waves of refugees. The impending disaster cries for intervention.
Local organizations are aware of the unfolding catastrophe, but desperately need money and technical assistance to lift the Sahel out of its dire straits. In the interim, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is working with local communities in Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Gambia, Ethiopia, and Senegal to ease the situation.
To mitigate the drought, FAO should work with the African Union and regional governments on water conservation and environmental sustainability. For example, because the Sahel lacks sufficient water storage infrastructure, FAO could build tanks to alleviate the nagging shortage. Storage tanks would allow millions of Sahel residents access to clean water. UNICEF estimates that 300,000 children under the age of 5 die every year from malnutrition, a problem exacerbated by tainted water.
World organizations continue to write reports and offer suggestions for how Sahelians can better manage resources and band together to promote climate stability. However, old generational problems need vibrant solutions. It is incumbent upon developed countries, if they hope to atone for past wrongs, to play a vigorous role in the Sahel’s recovery.