Boko Haram – Terror and Trauma

When the Nigerian terror organization Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from their school in Chibok in April 2014, the cry of outrage sounded across the country and reverberated around the world: #bringbackourgirls. Almost half of the girls have now been freed. Stefan Klein was able to talk to some of them. His moving report comes from the wounded heart of the African continent.
In parts of Africa, people confront cruelties and atrocities on an almost daily basis, while the rest of the world barely registers the events. But when Boko Haram raided a school in Chibok in northeast Nigeria on the evening of 14 April 2014 and abducted nearly 300 schoolgirls, alarm and outrage were felt across the globe.
Stefan Klein has researched every aspect of the abduction. He has spoken to the girls’ families, to politicians, representatives of the army, activists and all those who are fighting for the girls’ release. And he has seen how the girls have been used by Boko Haram as bargaining chips in their dealings with the Nigerian government.
Most importantly, he was able to speak to three of the returning young women. They describe in their own words what really happened on that night in April and what it meant to spend over three years of their lives as prisoners of Boko Haram. Moreover, we find out how Boko Haram was able to become one of the most feared terror organizations in the world and what this means for Nigerian society.