Parents of Chibok schoolgirls who were kidnapped in 2014 by Islamic extremists attend a 10th anniversary event of the abduction in Lagos, Nigeria, on April 4, 2024.
(AP Photo/Mansur Ibrahim )
It’s been 10 years since the #BringBackOurGirls campaign was launched to rescue kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls. Looking back at the campaign reveals its innovations and limitations.
Nollywood celebrity Patience Ozokwor, aka Mama G, pleads for the release of the more than 200 abducted Chibok school girls in Lagos on 29 May 2014.
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Governance failure and location of schools around large expanses of unprotected forest zones make school children easy targets for bandits in Nigeria’s north-west.
“Bring back our girls” campaigners protesting in Abuja on 22 August 2014.
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Nigeria’s school abductions are a sign of neglect of territorial and human security in the country.
Nigerian police officers.
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To defeat armed banditry in its north-west region, Nigeria needs to adopt a new approach to policing.
Parents and relatives of students from the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization in Kaduna, who were kidnapped, hold placards during a demonstration in Abuja on May 4, 2021.
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A lot is said about kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria but little is known about how families mobilise resources and deliver ransom to kidnappers.
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Scholars explain how and why terrorists appear to be running rampant across Nigeria.
In 2019, members of an anti-banditry vigilante group disarmed in Zamfara but this has not halted attacks from bandits.
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To end banditry, Nigeria first needs to tackle poverty, hunger and unemployment.
Residents fleeing their homes in Plateau State, north central Nigeria, on April 12, 2022 after their houses were burnt during an attack by bandits.
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The Nigerian government needs to understand that banditry is an act of warfare and should be treated as such.
Some members of the Nigerian Armed Forces Sniper Unit.
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The atrocities and motivation of bandits have assumed insurgent-type criminality. But the Nigerian government is reluctant to label them terrorists or insurgents.
Education for children growing up in northern Nigeria is fraught with danger.
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This is a transcript of episode 12 of The Conversation Weekly podcast, including a story on the reasons why Kenyan women who join Al-Shabaab.
A group of boys abducted by Boko Haram in Katsina State, northern Nigeria, after their release in December 2020.
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Plus, why women join Al-Shabaab in Kenya. Listen to episode 12 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.
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In the past five years, the rise of banditry and terror attacks have had devastating effects on children in northern Nigeria.
A Fulani herdsman waters his cattle on a dusty plain between Malkohi and Yola town
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Clashes between farmers and herders in Nigeria have their roots in history and an overriding arc of insecurity, but new challenges are contributing to the problem.
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Navies, and other security agencies, won’t be able to improve maritime security as long as root causes on land are not addressed.
Nigerians living in Spain rally against Boko Haram insurgents who abducted over 200 girls from a school in Chibok, northeast of the country.
Kidnapping in Nigeria has blossomed into a burgeoning criminal enterprise.
Nigerian militants patrol the oil rich Niger delta region, the birth place of commercial kidnapping in the country.
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Tough socio-economic conditions, among others, make kidnapping a thriving business in Nigeria. A strong justice system along with stiff punishment for the crime are needed.