While still asleep in the pre-dawn hours, at least 30 Nigerian children were slain. THERE’S no way to explain such insanity. We know ultra-conservative movements promote such violence, but that doesn’t help us understand it any better.
Their crime? Wanting to learn.
Islamic militants attacked the boarding school bearing guns and machetes.
Most of the children who tried to run away from the chaos were shot.
Those remaining were killed in the burning quarters.
A farmer, Malam Abdullahi, found the bodies of two of his sons, a 10-year-old shot in the back as he apparently tried to run away and a 12-year-old shot in the chest.
It bears repeating. The boys were 10 and 12.
The militants claim allegiance to a radical group called Boko Haram, which means, quite aptly, “Western education is sacrilege.”
By Western one must assume they were being taught to read and write English, the universal language of today’s world.
The result of the atrocity is that all across the country parents were pulling their students out of schools.
Islamic militants from Boko Haram and breakaway groups have killed more than 1,600 civilians in suicide bombings and other attacks since 2010, according to the Associated Press.
In addition to schools, the militants take aim at health care workers administering vaccine, teachers and government workers.
Farmers are also their target, creating a possible food shortage.
The only defense against such crimes is harsh retribution, rebuilding the schools and clinics, providing protection for such institutions, and going at it again.
For knowledge will triumph. And good will prevail.
But obviously, not without a fight.
— Susan Lynn
