The heavily armed militants stormed the girls dormitory in the middle
of the night, herding more than 200 students on to vehicles and burning
down nearby buildings as they made their escape. That was a week ago Monday.
Of the 230 students
abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School in the Nigerian town
of Chibok, about 190 are still missing, one official said.
The number of girls taken
from the school has been revised by officials several times, and on
Monday, CNN spoke with Principal Asabe Kwambura, who said a new figure
of at least 230 was determined after reviewing records and taking
reports from parents.
Seven girls escape Nigerian militants
Fate of kidnapped students uncertain
Isa Umar Gusau, a
spokesman for the Borno provincial governor's office, put the number at
234 -- 129 science students and 105 art students.
He said in a written
statement that the confusion resulted because the art students didn't
leave campus as expected on the day of the attack. The head of the
dormitory initially didn't count them among the missing.
No one knows where the missing girls are. And even more surprising, no one's particularly shocked.
"All the community are
sympathizing with the parents," Kwambura told CNN earlier. But, she
said, "the people in the villages are not surprised."
Such is life in the lawless Borno province.
Tucked away near the
border with Cameroon, with phone services cut off and travel strongly
discouraged, this poor corner of Nigeria is no stranger to such brazen,
violent acts.
For 11 months, the
provinces of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa have been under a state of
emergency due to relentless assaults blamed on Boko Haram.
The Islamist militant
group has bombed churches and mosques; kidnapped women and children; and
assassinated politicians and religious leaders.
Boko Haram -- whose name
means "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language -- says it
wants to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Africa's
most populous nation.
The group has gone about its misguided mission with such depressing regularity that residents have become somewhat numb.
Where's the president?
Nigerians marvel that
U.S. President Barack Obama traveled to Massachusetts after the Boston
Marathon bombings that killed three people last year.
Boko Haram-related violence killed 1,500 in the first three months of this year alone. And yet, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has not visited the region recently.
Part of it may have to do with geographic divisions.
Jonathan is from the
predominantly Christian south. That's not just geographically distant
but also culturally different from the Muslim-dominated,
violence-wracked north.
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To put things in
perspective, none of Jonathan's major political rivals from the north
attended his inauguration in 2011. And widespread violence broke out in
the north when his presidential win was announced, with some residents
claiming the election was rigged.
It's the opposite of what happened with Jonathan's predecessor.
The previous president,
Umaru Yar'Adua, was from the north. During his tenure, violence ravaged
the country's oil-rich, southern Niger Delta, with militant groups
saying they wanted a fairer distribution of the region's oil wealth.
Where's the military?
The Nigerian military
has been engaged in a brutal, ever-escalating fight with Boko Haram.
Rights group accuse both sides of ruthlessness -- Boko Haram of
indiscriminate attacks, and the military of extrajudicial killings.
But when it comes to the abductions of girls -- and there have been many -- the military has had a difficult time.
Last week, the defense
ministry erroneously reported that all but eight of the girls from the
latest kidnapping were free. It retracted a day later.
Lawan Zanna, the father
of one of the students, said the government turned from using "blatant
propaganda" to making a "blatant lie."
Part of the reason the
military is loath to respond mightily may be because the girls who are
kidnapped are raped, forced into servitude -- but rarely killed.
In February, 29 college students in the northern Yobe province were killed after an attack authorities blamed on Boko Haram. All of them were males. The women were spared.
In other instances,
kidnapped girls were later rescued while working on farms. Many were
pregnant or had babies -- the result of rape.
The spate of kidnappings
began in May 2013 when Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau announced in a
video that this was part of its latest bloody campaign.
The
kidnappings, he said, were retaliation for Nigerian security forces
nabbing the wives and children of group members.
Those kidnapped, he said, would begin a new life as a "servant."
But the latest incident has ratcheted up the pressure on the military.
The military said
"ongoing, frantic efforts" of security forces, vigilante groups and
hunters are attempting to find and free the students. But a week later, the fate of 190 girls remain unknown.
SOURCE: http://edition.cnn.com
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