Boko Haram victim travels to US to raise awareness about group’s terror

World Today

A victim of a recent attack by the radical group Boko Haram has traveled to the United States to raise awareness among Washington policymakers about the terror the group is causing. CCTV America’s Daniel Ryntjes reported from Washington, D.C.

Boko Haram militants took over Abba Mohammed Bashir Shuwa’s home last week in their bid to overthrow the Nigerian government.

“So if I go back today, I have no place to live because my house has been overrun by the Boko Haram and my own family house, where my younger brothers and my siblings are living, has also been ransacked and there is no house for them to live in,” Shuwa said.

As a former information technology advisor to Nigeria’s Borno state governor, Shuwa has witnessed how his state has fallen under attack by Boko Haram.

“The international community has closed its eyes. No international reporters are there. It seems like the world has abandoned that area to the Boko Haram,” Shuwa said.

The head of U.S. Africa Command Gen. David Rodriguez said that while Nigeria receives international assistance, the needs of the civilian population are not being met.

“I think it’s going to take a huge international and multinational effort there to change the trajectory of that, which continues to go in the wrong direction,” Rodriguez said.

Shuwa said he is most concerned about the fate of displaced children who receive no schooling.

“I hope they (the Washington policy makers) will (listen to and understand what I am saying). I hope, but in the meantime, they might not understand the true implication of the situation the people are living in,” Shuwa said.

Last year, the Nigerian government complained that the U.S. was blocking the sale of heavy military equipment, including Chinook helicopters, and then abruptly cancelled a U.S. military training program. While tensions with Nigeria remain high, the U.S. insists intelligence-sharing has improved, even as the conditions for the people of Borno state have worsened.