ICC Note: Boko Haram is on the run, but if the Nigerian military is going to locate the missing Chibok girls, they’ll have to track down militants in the Sambisa Forest, a former game reserve in northeast Nigeria that serves as the last stronghold for the militant Islamist sect. A major facet of the reign of terror that Boko Haram has exacted across northern Nigeria in their bloody seven-year insurgency is kidnapping, sexual violence, and rape. Reports confirm that the terror group has kidnapped at least 2,000 women and girls, subjecting them to forced conversion, forced marriage, and rape. The two-year anniversary of the most notorious of these mass abductions just passed when in April 2014, Boko Haram carried off nearly 300 mostly Christian girls from a government school in Chibok, Nigeria sparking off the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign. 219 remain missing two years on.
By Nima Elbagir
4/27/16 Maiduguri, Nigeria (CNN) – As night falls, the curfew comes into effect. Nobody is allowed on the streets. Anxiety hangs in the air.
