The kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from the Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria on April 15, 2014, made international headlines, spurring calls for the girls’ return and inspiring the trending hashtag #bringbackourgirls. While a handful of the girls escaped and returned home, more than 200 are still missing. Boko Haram threatened to sell the girls should the Nigerian government refuse to negotiate for the release of other members of the terrorist group. The girls are still missing.
Cameroonian Vice Prime Minister Ahmadou Ali was the victim of a Boko Haram attack on his home in the northern town of Kolofata, Cameroon on July 27, 2014. The group killed several family members and kidnapped Ali’s wife. Dozens were gathered at the house to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Ali was spared from the attack. He was en route home when it occurred.
On the same night that Ali’s wife was kidnapped, a separate attack was launched on the home of Seini Boukar Lamine, a local religious leader. Lamine is mayor of Kolofata, and both he and five members of his family were kidnapped by the terrorist group. At least three other people were killed in the attack.
In May 2014, 10 Chinese workers were kidnapped from Waza in Cameroon’s Far North Region, representing Boko Haram’s increasing activity outside of Nigeria’s borders. The attack came shortly before summit talks regarding Boko Haram began in Paris. Five heads of state, including Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, attended the summit.
The two teenage children of Bieshair Mohaman, one of Cameroon’s most influential Muslim spiritual leaders, were kidnapped by the Boko Haram in July 2014. The attack took place at Mohaman’s home in the town of Limani on the border with Nigeria’s Borno state, where Mohaman is the traditional ruler. Mohaman had previously refused to cooperate with Boko Haram, which retaliated by abducting two of his sons.
In October 2004, Boko Haram gunmen ambushed a convoy of more than 60 policemen in Kala-Balge, a town on the border with Chad. Several people were killed during the attack, and 12 were taken hostage. Authorities attempted to track the stolen officers, but failed. The government presumed they were all dead.
French engineer Francis Collomp was kidnapped by Boko Haram in the Northern Nigerian Katsina State Dec. 19, 2013, when the group attacked the home of his employer, French turbine manufacturer Vergnet. After nearly a year in captivity, Collomp was able to escape by locking one of his captors in a bathroom during evening prayers.
Two engineers, British national Chris McManus and Italian Franco Lamolinara, were kidnapped in Birnin Kebbi city on May 12, 2011, while working on the construction of the state headquarters for the Central Bank of Nigeria. British and Nigerian forces launched a rescue operation after receiving credible information as to their whereabouts, but both men died during the rescue effort.
Seven foreign nationals working for the SETRACO construction company were kidnapped by Boko Haram in February 2013, which violated a ceasefire agreement the Islamist group had established with the Nigerian government weeks earlier. The workers from Britain, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, and the Philippines, were never recovered.
