WASHINGTON – Three kidnapped schoolgirls who escaped from the Boko Haram Islamic jihadist organization in Nigeria met with Washington lawmakers and others to recount their experience.
After hearing the testimony, a congressman is calling on the Obama administration to confront the root problem and help the Nigerian government defeat Boko Haram. The group attacked a secondary school in the northern town of Chibok in April, taking an estimated 276 female students. Most are still missing, and Boko Haram has said it wants to sell the girls.
"The administration is trying to rationalize the irrational," said Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas. "We say that terrorism is caused by poverty or by social policy or alienation. It's not. In Boko Haram's case, the motivation is religious, and our president won't say that."
"We have all the intelligence that is needed to get the Nigerians the help they need, but we're not doing it," he said.
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The three girls who escaped Boko Haram met in Washington this week to describe their experiences. They did not use their real names for security reasons.
One girl said the Boko Haram fighters routinely spoke of killing the girls.
Another confirmed they "threatened to kill us all the time."
"One time they said to stand in this place if you want to die. The choice for us to live was to get on the truck and go with them," the second girl said.
She said the jihadists spoke openly of their motive: jihad.
"They don't care about the sacrifice they're putting on people," she said. "They're doing it because it's jihad. They hate Christians."
She had attended two other schools that survived Boko Haram attacks.
"One was a year-and-a-half ago; another was about a year ago. I went to Chibok because I thought I would be safe there. Then Boko Haram attacked the school in Chibok," she said. "We lost everything when they burned down our school. We lost our freedom, we lost our friends. We lost our books. We lost our school. We lost our families because we were separated from them."
The third girl said it appeared the men who joined Boko Haram did so because they thirst for power.
"They always threatened us. They threatened to kill us if we didn't tell them where a brick kiln was located. They said they believed it was in the school, and they threatened to kill us if we didn't tell them where in the school it was. But, there was no brick-making machine in the school, so we always felt they were going to kill us," she said.
Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., charged during the meeting that the Obama administration's response has been far from adequate.
He said the U.S. has done little for the Boko Haram victims, and his plan is for legislation that would channel aid to Nigeria in its fight against the jihadists.
"The bill is designed to direct Attorney General Eric Holder to provide victim assistance. The people who are victims of Boko Haram are victims of terrorism," he said.
"And it's terrorism," Franks emphasized. "Not calling Boko Haram jihadists is like calling shoplifters 'nonpaying customers' or drug dealers 'unlicensed pharmacists,' and it's ridiculous."
"We wrote to President Obama and to Secretary of State Kerry, and they ignored us," he said. "I've tried to put pressure on this administration, but they're not listening.
"There's a vacuum of American leadership now, and our involvement is a key to winning these things. It's hard because we're not the world's policeman, but we're the flagship of freedom in the world," Franks said.
U.S.-Nigeria Law Group President Emmanuel Ogebe endorsed Franks' effort to bring relief to Nigeria's Christians. He said the greatest need is help for the victims.
"One way to help is to open up opportunities for Nigerians victimized by Boko Haram to apply for refugee status," Ogebe said.
He agreed with Stockman that logic isn't always applicable.
"This terrorist group isn't looking for inclusive government. They want an exclusive government. This is terrorism, and it's not because of a lack of economic opportunity," he said. "Boko Haram goes into Niger and bribe[s] young men to join them. The group uses a 'scorched earth' policy and forces people to do their will. It's clearly terrorism. The problem is that, for the longest time, the State Department refused to call Boko Haram a terrorist group."
It wasn't until recently, under pressure, that the Obama administration tagged Boko Haram with the "terrorist" label.
Ogebe said the attacks on Christians are vicious.
"The beheadings, the making of martyrs and forcing people to live below subsistence level are daily happenings for the Christians in Nigeria," Ogebe said.
WND reported in August that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shakau declared northern Nigeria to be an Islamic nation. At the time, Stockman said chances are good that Shakau's declaration will stand.
The video statement from Boko Haram in Arabic said, according to an English translation: "Thanks be to Allah who has given us victory in Gwoza and made us part of the Islamic caliphate. Thanks be to Allah. We are in an Islamic caliphate, and we have nothing to do with Nigeria."
Stockman said there's no reason to believe Boko Haram can't carry out various functions of government, but ultimately that isn't the issue.
"What matters is their ability to keep everyone under control at the point of a gun," he said. "I don't think that's a good way to govern, but a quarter of the world's population is at the point of a gun. That's the way they'll keep them in line."
WND also reported in August that there is growing momentum for getting northern Nigeria's Christians to fight back.
"Fight them," said Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the American Center for Democracy and the Economic Warfare Institute. "Unless the non-Muslims in Africa fight the jihadists, they'll become refugees, enslaved or killed."