Nigerian Girls Kidnapping, Two Years Later

Amid all the horrors in the world, the media and the global community have largely remained silent about Boko Haram's brutalities.
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Today marks two years since the terrorist group Boko Haram abducted nearly 300 Nigerian school girls from their school in the middle of the night. Most of those girls have not been seen or heard from since.

Boko Haram has abducted, imprisoned, and violated countless women and girls in Nigeria and surrounding countries.

They have displaced more than 2 million people, including 1.4 million children, who have seen their homes destroyed, their families brutally killed, their lives torn apart.

In 2014, Boko Haram was responsible for nearly seven thousand deaths, making it deadlier than any other terrorist group, including ISIS.

But amid all the horrors in the world, the media and the global community have largely remained silent about Boko Haram's brutalities.

As a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, I continue to advocate for increased attention to Boko Haram, knowing that the atrocities perpetrated by Boko Haram could very well cause further instability throughout the region and have significant implications for U.S. national security.

Earlier this year, I called for a committee hearing to explore the issues around Boko Haram. We have a moral responsibility to work toward the elimination of this terrorist group. Inaction is incompatible with our commitment to human rights.

Those who choose to ignore the ongoing atrocities committed by Boko Haram look at Africa and see instability and strife. Others, like myself, look and see these kidnapped girls, and we think about what would happen to our own children if they were taken from us.

It is time for all of us to see these girls not as a burden of another nation, but as a responsibility of our own. It is time for us to help secure justice on their behalf and their safe return to their families.

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