Daily Times

The brutal rise of militancy that looks to target civilian populations worldwide is staggering. Once again, northeastern Nigeria has become the scene of a brutal onslaught. Storming the small village of Gumsuri, militants abducted as many as 200 villagers, including women and children. They have also killed about 33 villagers. This is the second attack in the area after the border town of Amchide was targeted, where militants razed homes and shops to the ground. Whilst no group has stepped forward to claim responsibility for the raids, all bets are on the Boko Haram being up to its old tricks once again. In April this year, as many as 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants from the town of Chibok, their ordeal still fresh in the minds of their countrymen and the world. How could this happen again? Those girls are still unaccounted for, with the militant group claiming that they have been married to their soldiers or sold into slavery. Now, it seems, it is the turn of these villagers who were kidnapped on Wednesday to meet the same fate.

Boko Haram is made of the same mould as the despicable Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq. All these militant organisations have turned towards a vile, violent strain of radical ideology, focusing on hitting soft targets, brutally slaying all they deem to be an enemy and recruiting and brainwashing others to join their demented cause. Boko Haram has been particularly nasty in its approach, killing students while they sleep in their hostel beds and kidnapping and torturing women and children for what seems like sport. IS is no better; it has brutally beheaded its captives and executed hundreds of others to assert its control. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has just brought the whole nation to the point of no return, mercilessly gunning down 132 children in their school in Peshawar. There is a pattern here and it is an evil one. The government in Nigeria must take a harder look at this pattern and do what is required about it. President Goodluck Jonathan must understand that 200 schoolgirls and now some 200 villagers are just a warm up for the likes of Boko Haram, a group whose ultimate goal is annihilation of anyone standing in its way and complete assertion of power. With reports telling of mutiny within the Nigerian army’s ranks, with soldiers refusing to fight the Boko Haram, a plan of action and relevant security policies must be put in place before this virus of militancy gets out of hand in the African country. *