500 Children Kidnapped
In a shocking report from the city of Damasak in Nigeria, 500 children, mostly aged 11 and under, are missing from the city after being abducted by a terrorist organization who recently pledged full allegiance to the Islamic State. Many of these kids were taken on trucks directly out of their school in broad daylight.
Estimates claim that more than 50 of those women and children were killed before they left town. The terrorists responsible for this and many other incidents are known as takfiri Boko Haram. They have been abducting children in this part of Africa for years. The beliefs of takfiri groups suggest that they are targeting muslim individuals that they view as impure, or have ties with western civilization.
They typically send the youngest of the children to their own schools where they are monitored and supervised, and train the males between the ages of 16 and 25 to join their organization and perform egregious acts of terror and crime. In a related event, bodies are piling up in areas around Damasak, where just last week 70 people were found dead and decomposing under a bridge.
Neighboring nations of Chad, Cameroon and Niger are all joining forces with Nigeria to put an end to the takfiri uprising. Forces are gaining ground back, but much is yet to be done. Since 2009, when the Boko Haram group began its activities in the region, over 13,000 people have been killed and 1.5 million citizens displaced or forced to escape their own country due to the violence and killing caused by the terrorist organization.
This is a war that seems to go unnoticed in many parts of the world. Less than a year ago over 200 school girls were taken by Takfiri in a single incident. Despite the fact that they are fighting who is essentially a common enemy with much of the western world, these African nations have been left to fend for themselves without much additional support. Children continue to go to school here, but are in constant fear of being kidnapped, raped or killed by Boko Haram.
