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Potential Nigerian Collapse would Dwarf Syrian Refugee Crisis

<p>You might recognize the image at left as part of the &ldquo&semi;bring back our girls&rdquo&semi; Twitter campaign launched a few years ago when the Islamic terror group Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 teen girls from a Nigerian boarding school and forced them to marry members of the group&period;&nbsp&semi;So far&comma; only two of the victims have been found&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Boko Haram&comma; which translates to &ldquo&semi;western education is forbidden&comma;&rdquo&semi; has been preying on northeastern Nigeria for the past seven years&period; The violent group has since spread its bloody fingers into Chad&comma; Niger&comma; and Cameroon&period; Boko Haram is responsible for more than 50&percnt; of all global deaths attributed to terrorism&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;Of the deadliest terror organizations in the world&comma; number one is Boko Haram&period; Number two is ISIS&period; Keep in mind they&rsquo&semi;ve pledged their allegiance to ISIS&comma; and there&rsquo&semi;s a connection&comma;&rdquo&semi; says former Congressman Frank Wolf &lpar;R-VA&rpar;&period;&nbsp&semi;Number four is the Fulani Militant Herdsmen&comma; also active in Nigeria&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Emmanuel Ogebe&comma; special counsel for the Justice for Jos project&comma; recounts his impression of the two terrorist groups following a visit to Nigeria&colon;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&ldquo&semi;Where Boko Haram would sort through victims to separate Muslims from Christians&comma; women from men and children from adults&comma; most often killing the latter and sparing the former&comma; the nomads hack and burn babies&comma; slash the bellies of pregnant women and generally leave a less methodical and more gruesome aftermath&period; Boko Haram seizes and occupies towns to administer them&period; The Fulani destroy communities and their cattle graze on the farms of those displaced or killed&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Wolf worries what could happen if these combined terrorist powers overwhelm Nigeria&period; &ldquo&semi;There&rsquo&semi;s 180 million people in Nigeria&period; There&rsquo&semi;s 3 million in Syria&period; If Nigeria unravels&comma; imagine the impact on Europe and the world&period; It would be unbelievable&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are already between 5 and 6 million IDPs &lpar;internally displaced persons&rpar; in Nigeria&comma; he continues&period; The IDP camps &ldquo&semi;are the worse I&rsquo&semi;ve ever seen&period; They have nothing&period; The UN is not there&comma; almost no one&rsquo&semi;s there&comma; other than some church groups&comma;&rdquo&semi; he said after visiting the African country in February&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Wolf stresses the potential aftermath should&nbsp&semi;Nigeria succumb to terrorism&colon; &ldquo&semi;We have a major interest there&period; If that 180 million or a portion of them are displaced&comma; they will devastate Africa&comma; they will devastate Europe&comma; and they will have a major impact on the business interests of the United States&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Wolf slammed Hillary Clinton for ignoring pleas to designate Boko Haram as a &ldquo&semi;foreign terrorist organization&rdquo&semi; during her time as Secretary of State and argues that &ldquo&semi;much of what we&rsquo&semi;re facing &lbrack;today&rsqb; would be different&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Wolf is&nbsp&semi;currently working with members of Congress in an effort to establish a special enjoy to Nigeria&period; He hopes such a move will raise awareness of the problems in Nigeria and argues that we must launch a coordinated response against Boko Haram and the Fulani Herdsmen&period;&nbsp&semi;&ldquo&semi;The issue of Boko Haram and the Fulani Herdsmen are not localized to Nigeria&comma; but transcend the bordering countries&period; A special envoy could help coordinate necessary assistance throughout the region&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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