April 18, 2017
April 14th, 2017
Clea Broadhurst, journalist with Radio France International, asked Yan St-Pierre to comment on the anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram.
“The main difference is the prominence of the Chibok Girls. The international attention after the kidnapping of these young girls created a very unique situation for them,” Yan St-Pierre, a counter terrorism adviser who works for a group called Modern Security in Berlin, told RFI. “As such, they’ve obtained a value to Boko Haram that others don’t have, because the federal government wants the girls released in order to be able to say ‘we freed the Chibok girls’. So this ‘added value’ to the girls is really creating the difference here, and Boko Haram is obviously trying to use that position to obtain money or resources that they otherwise couldn’t get with any other hostage.” St-Pierre also pointed out that Boko Haram is weaker than it used to be, but that it also adapts well. As it operates across several borders, it can sustain itself.
To read the full article or listen to the interview, please refer to the link above.