World Tour: Justice still captive

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour.

In Nigeria, dozens of children are in captivity after a recent series of school abductions.

Many have criticized the government’s failure to ensure justice for victims, as many of them face recurring violence.

Africa reporter Onize Oduah has our report.

SOUND: Rejoicing

ONIZE ODUAH: That’s the sound of a mother rejoicing and thanking God after learning that Nigerian authorities had rescued her child and other abducted students over the weekend.

Back in May, armed Islamist insurgents captured more than 40 children and teachers from schools in southwest Oyo state. That’s far away from the usual terror targets in the north.

Nigerian authorities said at least eight insurgents were also arrested in the rescue operation.

Maria Balogun was among the celebrating parents.

BALOGUN: [YORUBA] I won’t deceive you. All I did was cry and pray every day. Our community prayed constantly, and so did Nigerians across the country.

She says all she did was cry and pray every day as community members and other Nigerians also joined in praying.

The news comes as Nigerians grapple with a recent string of school abductions.

The same week as the Oyo kidnapping, gunmen abducted at least 40 children from another school in northeast Borno state.

SOUND: Protesters yelling

Later, angry parents and community members protested in the Borno town of Lassa where gunmen kidnapped teenaged students as they wrote their final exams.

Sean Nelson is the senior counsel for global religious freedom at ADF, the Alliance Defending Freedom International.

SEAN NELSON: The whole kidnapping for ransom, along with the sort of with the Islamist terrorist threats against it, it really wraps very clearly up into the Boko Haram ideology that that they have, that the Islamic State West Africa has, which is that children should not be receiving good education, Western-style education that helps them to advance, so that's a sort of corrupt system, and that if they're not following the terrorist vision of what Islam should be, that they deserve to be terrorized and attacked.

Abductors of the just-released children did not identify with any known terror group. But they reportedly demanded a money transfer, and called for Sharia law and the release of terror leaders.

NELSON: It's something that does seem to be an explicit goal of the terrorists and a way for them to justify their ideology.

Nigerian authorities have touted some recent progress against the insurgency, including the deaths of Islamic State fighters in joint U.S. operations and the rescue of hundreds of Boko Haram abductees.

But the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief highlighted a lack of justice.

NAZILA GHANEA: The victims also see the authorities, both at the state and federal level, as culpable. One victim spoke of being displaced six times over the last 10 years.

Nazila Ghanea’s comments came after a fact-finding mission in Nigeria. She blames the spread of violence on a lack of accountability.

Last month, authorities in Borno state said they have reintegrated 720 “repentant insurgents” into society. Nelson said that sort of action doesn’t instill confidence.

NELSON: It seems that, that you know, justice is not fully being served in terms of the crimes that those folks have committed, so that's concerning.

Last week, the United States said it has withdrawn troops deployed earlier this year to aid local authorities in targeting Islamists.

Nelson says the move now allows Nigerian authorities to act beyond a military response.

NELSON: I think the next shift over the next few months is really going to be, are they able to implement more structural reforms that bring peace, that provide additional security to these very vulnerable communities that are repeatedly attacked. Are they going to be able to implement early warning systems? Are they going to have plans to get the millions of internally displaced persons who are also targets?

That’s this week’s World Tour. I’m Onize Oduah in Abuja, Nigeria.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.