More Abductions in Nigeria

[Content Note: Violence; abduction; misogyny; terrorism.]

Gunmen suspected to be part of Boko Haram, the terrorist organization who abducted 234 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok in April, have struck once again, abducting "more than 100 women and children and killed 35 other people on Sunday during a raid on the remote northeast Nigerian village of Gumsuri."

Although no one has claimed it yet, the attack bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which abducted more than 200 women in April from a secondary school in Chibok, only 24 km (15 miles) from this latest attack.

...Thousands of people have been killed and many hundreds abducted, raising questions about the ability of security forces to protect civilians, especially around the north Cameroon border where the militants are well established.

Maina Chibok, who did not witness the attack but is from Gumsuri and visited family there shortly afterwards, said the insurgents came in pick-up trucks and sprayed the town with bullets from AK-47s and machine guns.

"They gathered the people, shot dead over 30 people and took away more than 100 women and children in two open-top trucks," Chibok said. Burials of many of the victims had already happened, he added.

News from remote parts of Nigeria that are cut off from mobile communications sometimes takes days to emerge.

A security source confirmed that more than 100 had been abducted and said 35 people had been killed, including the district head.

"They also burned down a government medical center, houses and shops," Chibok said.

This is just intolerable. I am so sad and so angry for the people who are just trying to live their lives in this region, and who are being constantly terrorized by people who use them as pawns in their disgusting ideological games.

I feel helpless to do anything: Bring Back Our Girls suggests that the most important thing we can do is make noise—"make as much noise as possible, to be globally loud, so that the Nigerian government will not be allowed peace till every one of the Chibok girls is back with their families."