Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau has announced that his group has started kidnapping women and children, purportedly in retaliation for government arrests of the wives and children of his group's members. Shekau added that anyone thusly taken by his forces could then become a "servant".
While no such confirmed kidnappings have yet been carried out by Boko Haram, this is a chilling turn taken by Nigeria's leading violent jihadi group. Kidnappings for ransom and for execution are a staple tactic of jihadis across the world, but these have usually targeted foreigners or wealthy individuals, and the victims have been predominantly adult (and usually male) in most cases. For a jihadi group to specifically target ordinary women and children for kidnapping is therefore an innovation, and one which likely rules out both ransom or execution-on-video as motivations. The victims are unlikely to be wealthy enough for ransom, nor (as locals) perceived as 'significant' enough to warrant execution for the purpose of creating videos meant to 'go viral' on the internet. This means the welfare of the kidnapping victims will depend on how benevolent the jihadis' interpretation of "servant" is -or whether this is simply a cover for yet more murders by Boko Haram.
Read more:
http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-extremists-kidnap-women-children-171112245.html
There aren't enough bars jihadis would go to. Nowhere you could go, sit with a drink, and eavesdrop on the messy, convoluted and contradictory mess that is violent jihadism around the world. So instead we have the imaginary Sharaaabtoon, a place where various self-proclaimed mujahadeen will be brought forth to be seen and overheard, just as if they were the clientele of a bar. Remember: no shahada, no service. Twitter: @Sharaabtoon
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