Nigeria’s President Orders New Investigation Into Kidnap Of Chibok Girls By Boko Haram

The Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari has announced that his government is launching a fresh investigation into the circumstance that led to the kidnapping of about 200 schoolchildren in the north-eastern town of Chibok by Boko Haram militants.

In April 2014, Boko Haram militants stormed the town in Borno State and kidnapped the girls from a school, and bolted away with them. This sparked international outrage with the hashtag BringBackOurGirls going viral around the world.

The then President, Goodluck Jonathan promised to rescue the girls from the militants, but failed to do so until he was defeated in a Presidential election by Muhammadu Buhari in April 2015. Critics have said Mr Jonathan handled the kidnapping of the girls poorly, and that might have contributed to his defeat. He has also been heavily criticized for handling the entire Boko Haram crisis in the country poorly.

With Mr Buhari becoming the new leader of the country, he promised to rescue the kidnap girls from the militants.

But parents of the girls said early this year that they are getting frustrated about promises which yield no results. Therefore, on Thursday January 14, the parents took to the street of the capital Abuja to remind the government that they still need their children.

After the march, the parents met with President Buhari who revealed to them that he is launching a fresh investigation into the kidnap. He pointed out that he has sacked some top personalities of the country’s military due to the handling of the rescue operation of the girls. In July 2015, few months after taken office, President Buhari sacked the heads of the country’s army, navy and air force.

“I assure you that I go to bed and wake up every day with the Chibok girls on my mind. In spite of the dire financial straits that we found the country in, I continue to do my best to support their efforts in that regard,” he told the parents of the kidnapped girls.

The new investigation according to President Buhari will be led by a panel appointed by the Nigeria’s national security adviser. The panel will look into the circumstances of the kidnapping and the government’s response. The government has said it does not know where the girls are or if they are alive.

In December 2015, President Buhari said he was prepared to negotiate with the militants to secure the release of the girls.

The militants’ leader, Abubakar Shekau said in a YouTube video last year that most of the girls had converted to Islam and had been married off.

Boko Haram is a jihadist movement seeking to establish an Islamic State in Nigeria. The group’s objective is to overthrow the Nigerian government, which it claims is too Western-friendly and does not honor Islam. The group has pledged allegiance to the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The group was founded in 2002 in Maiduguri, the capital of the north-eastern state of Borno. However, the group became very radical, bombing and engaging the Nigerian military in direct combat in 2009.

In 2014, the group gained international attention after it kidnapped some 200 schoolgirls in the town of Chibok in Borno State. Currently, the group spans across Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger.

Human rights groups estimate that Boko Haram has killed some 20,000 people, and displaced around 2.3 million vulnerable people from their homes.

The Nigerian military has been more than pathetic. It has failed woefully to deal with the group. In the past, the military claimed it was not well equipped in terms of arms and munitions to engage the group, but despite the recent external funding from Western countries, the military still cannot stop the group.

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