No one knows for sure how many people Nigeria’s militant Islamist
group Boko Haram killed in a string of violent attacks last week because
there are few people left to count the bodies.
The first slayings came when the militants razed the community of Baga on Lake Chad, killing hundreds and possibly as many as 2,000 civilians with little effort or care. Those who survived reported fleeing over fields of bloody corpses. A few days later, a barrage of females—including a 10-year-old girl thought to be among those kidnapped by the extremist group last April—were corseted with explosives and used as human detonators to kill scores more.
The only thing worse than the global community’s collective amnesia about the once-viral #bringbackourgirls campaign and the indifference to the latest bloodshed is the detachment shown by the Nigerian government, which still has not made a formal comment on the latest atrocities. “In this worsening narrative, women as collateral damage or easily dismissed war booty or victims or tools is a major step backward,” Adotei Akwei, the Africa advocacy director of Amnesty International, told The Daily Beast. “Not only in terms of gender bias, but in terms of accountability for all involved.”
As Nigeria prepares for elections next month, accountability—or lack thereof—seems to be the most important campaign topic not being discussed by the candidates. No one seems ready to catch the killers or take responsibility to stop the violence, despite estimates by the Council on Foreign Relations that more than 10,000 people lost their lives in 2014.
The elections will be a repeat of those held in 2011 with now-incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the south who heads the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), challenged by Muhammad Buhari, a Muslim from the north, who heads the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Buhari was briefly head of state in the mid-1980s when he was a general and Nigeria was a military state, but he was toppled in a coup that paved the way to democratic elections. According to a Gallup Poll released Tuesday, only 8 percent of Nigeria’s population say they believe in the fairness of the upcoming elections.
The accountability issue in Nigeria is as multifaceted as the country is corrupt, said Carl Levan, a professor at the school of International Service at American University in Washington and author of Dictators and Democracy in African Development.
He says that the reluctance to pursue Boko Haram, which flies the jihadi black flag and publicly supports ISIS, stems from the fact that sitting President Jonathan, who is from southern Nigeria, risks an electoral backlash if he comes down hard on his military’s ineffectiveness.
Read more: Nigeria Is Letting Boko Haram Get Away With Murder - The Daily Beast
The first slayings came when the militants razed the community of Baga on Lake Chad, killing hundreds and possibly as many as 2,000 civilians with little effort or care. Those who survived reported fleeing over fields of bloody corpses. A few days later, a barrage of females—including a 10-year-old girl thought to be among those kidnapped by the extremist group last April—were corseted with explosives and used as human detonators to kill scores more.
The only thing worse than the global community’s collective amnesia about the once-viral #bringbackourgirls campaign and the indifference to the latest bloodshed is the detachment shown by the Nigerian government, which still has not made a formal comment on the latest atrocities. “In this worsening narrative, women as collateral damage or easily dismissed war booty or victims or tools is a major step backward,” Adotei Akwei, the Africa advocacy director of Amnesty International, told The Daily Beast. “Not only in terms of gender bias, but in terms of accountability for all involved.”
As Nigeria prepares for elections next month, accountability—or lack thereof—seems to be the most important campaign topic not being discussed by the candidates. No one seems ready to catch the killers or take responsibility to stop the violence, despite estimates by the Council on Foreign Relations that more than 10,000 people lost their lives in 2014.
The elections will be a repeat of those held in 2011 with now-incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the south who heads the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), challenged by Muhammad Buhari, a Muslim from the north, who heads the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Buhari was briefly head of state in the mid-1980s when he was a general and Nigeria was a military state, but he was toppled in a coup that paved the way to democratic elections. According to a Gallup Poll released Tuesday, only 8 percent of Nigeria’s population say they believe in the fairness of the upcoming elections.
The accountability issue in Nigeria is as multifaceted as the country is corrupt, said Carl Levan, a professor at the school of International Service at American University in Washington and author of Dictators and Democracy in African Development.
He says that the reluctance to pursue Boko Haram, which flies the jihadi black flag and publicly supports ISIS, stems from the fact that sitting President Jonathan, who is from southern Nigeria, risks an electoral backlash if he comes down hard on his military’s ineffectiveness.
Read more: Nigeria Is Letting Boko Haram Get Away With Murder - The Daily Beast
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