A report by the Wall Street Journal has revealed that the infamous abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls carried out by terrorist group, Boko Haram, in 2014 was an accident.
According to the report, the terrorists had invaded the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok to steal the school’s brick-making machine and not to kidnap the students.
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The terrorists reportedly only kidnapped the girls because they had no idea of what to do with them after securing the machine, and decided to take them to their leader, Abubakar Shekau.
The report read, “The night of the attack, when the girls emerged in the courtyard, they could see the men were not soldiers. They wore unkempt beards, flip-flops and tattered uniforms. Several were raiding the school cafeteria, stealing sacks of rice, beans and pasta. Others poured gasoline on the school to torch it.
“Boko Haram had not come to abduct the students. It had come to steal the school’s brickmaking machine. The insurgents had been on a kidnapping spree, and their camps faced a housing shortage.
“A commander fired his rifle in the air and demanded to know where the machine was kept. Once they found it, the fighters hoisted it onto a truck.
“As they prepared to leave, one militant, motioning to the students, asked a fateful question. What shall we do with them?
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“The unit’s commander turned to the girls. ‘Shekau will know what to do with them,’ he said.
“The fighters ordered the students to climb into their trucks. The teenagers linked hands and arms as they stumbled through the dark.”
13 Chibok girls already dead
After several escapes and releases, 113 of the girls are still in captivity of the deadly terrorist group.
However, according to the WSJ report, 13 of the schoolgirls have died from a range of causes during the time spent in captivity.
The report quotes an official familiar with the situation as saying, “Of the remaining 113, at least 13 have died, officials say. Some were felled by malaria, hunger or a snake bite.
“The majority died in airstrikes. Among those forcibly married to fighters, at least two died in childbirth.”
Buhari paid Boko Haram €3m for 103 Chibok girls
The WSJ report also indicates that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the sum of €1 million for the release of 21 kidnapped Chibok Girls in October 2016, before approving another €2 million for the release of a further 82 girls in May 2017.
The WSJ report indicated that even though the president was not happy with the deal, he hoped that it would be a great step towards negotiating peace with the terrorist group.
The report read, “The President was eager for a victory. He also loathed the idea of paying Boko Haram. No one knew if he would sign off.
“In the end, he approved the deal, with a condition: He insisted that any money that reached Boko Haram would be a step toward a comprehensive peace agreement.”
Boko Haram menace
Since the insurgency of the terrorist group escalated after a 2009 crackdown by the military, Boko Haram, chiefly under the leadership of Abubakar Shekau, has been responsible for the death of over 20,000 people and the displacement of more than 2.5 million scattered across Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps across the country and its neighbours.
After a massive military operation resulted in the displacement of the group from its primary base in the infamous Sambisa Forest, it has resorted to suicide bomb attacks on soft targets and carried out daring attacks on military bases, with hundreds of captives still unaccounted for.
www.sojworld.com © December 26, 2017
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