Africa rescue our daughters from Boko Haram

It is now more than a month since the Boko Haram extremist group kidnapped more than two hundred (200) girls at a school in Nigeria and African leaders have failed to take any action meant to rescue those unfortunate girls at the time when their mothers are crying for help. As such, western countries led by the United States of America (USA), Britain, France and also the Asian giant, China as well as Israel have declared that they were ready to assist Nigeria in rescuing those girls and flushing out Boko Haram terrorists from where they are.

The USA has already sent manpower to investigate the whereabouts of the kidnapped girls, with China coming in with various means of assistance in order to find out where the girls could be. One would have expected the African Union (AU) to take a leading role in the search for the abducted Nigerian school going girls. But for unknown reasons, the African Union (AU) is taking too long to act in bringing peace to the Nigerian kidnapped girls.

But why is it that the AU has taken a back seat position and its leadership remains quite? What impressions are we giving to the outside world on our integrity as a continent? The AU should stand up and make sure that the kidnapped girls are rescued and reunited with their families.

Whereas, we do not deny cooperation from the Western world, the AU, through the Peace and Security Commission should strive for zero tolerance on terrorist activities. The Commission needs to be more active and should have used the Nigerian case to show its commitment towards the eradication of terrorism in the continent.

The problem with the AU is that it is slow to take action and sometimes fails to lead by example. In the Malian crisis, people witnessed in 2012, the AU failing to send forces to repel the rebels who caused havoc in that country. The AU watched as the Islamists rebels went on to destroy the centuries old Timbuktu and Ancient Surf Shrines causing the demise of tourist attraction sites. The rebels only surrendered after the French army intervened and repelled the marauding rebels, leading to democratic elections in 2013, which brought in a new government.

In another incident, the AU failed to take actions in the spring uprisings that swept through Tunisia, Egypt and Libya some few years ago. The inaction of the AU in such troubled spots in Africa led to the overthrow of the leaders of those countries with lives being lost. In Libya, the international community led by the USA deployed their armed forces that fought against the Murmur Gaddaffi-led government as the international community was saying that Gaddaffi was committing crimes against humanity by killing his people yet Gaddaffi was defending his territories from rebel attacks.

 In that way the USA sponsored a resolution in the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) which called for a non-fly zone for Libyan planes resulting in the bombardment of Libyan territories by allied forces in search of government forces that were fighting to repel the al-Qaida led rebels. This bombardment of the Libyan territories by the Allied forces, led to the capture and   assassination of Murmur Gaddaffi by the allied forces-supported rebels yet the AU remained silent.

Just recently, the crisis in South Sudan only needed the intervention of the USA through its Secretary of State, John Kerry to persuade the rebel leader Dr Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir to come to the negotiating table, leading to the signing of the ceasefire in Ethiopia some few days ago. The AU did not see any need to help the warring parties in South Sudan in order to end war but remained silent as thousands of innocent people were butchered by the warring parties.

Now, the families of the kidnapped girls in Nigeria are crying for help as they wait to hear from the Nigerian authorities and the world over about the whereabouts of their lovely daughters. It is disheartening and disappointing for someone to lose his/her daughter in that way and only to learn that the AU is just quite and not offering any assistance to that matter. More worrying and disheartening is the fact that while the AU is not taking any action to rescue the kidnapped girls, the same leaders always meet in various platforms with no plans to deal with terrorist attacks in the continent. For how long would the African continent get security support from the western countries as if the AU has no leaders with war strategic plans?

The Mothers' Day came and went. So, while other mothers around the world were receiving gifts and comforts from their children who were celebrating the Mothers' Day, in Nigeria, mothers of the kidnapped girls were crying and hoping that the Nigerian army would one day bring back their daughters and celebrate the delayed Mothers' Day with their daughters. It was a sad situation thinking that there was no information from the authorities to explain where the girls are being kept captive. To worsen the situation, the Nigerian authorities are even failing to explain to the unfortunate mothers how they would bring back those kidnapped girls to them.
 The International Day of the Family has also come and gone with no girls in sight to join their parents so that they celebrate together this important day. What a sad chapter to the affected families of Nigeria.

The failure by the AU to give security to its people, in such situations with the western countries coming to assist the Nigerian government makes it easy for the African countries to remain under the bondage of the western world. These western countries would not just come to assist the Nigerian government to search for the kidnapped girls and go back without looking for ways on how to exploit the oil resources in that country. African leaders should know that any western assistance come at a price. So the Boko Haram's kidnapping of girls has opened doors for the western countries to strike an opportunity for oil resources in Nigeria.

Surprisingly, the same western countries failed to intervene in the 1994 Rwandan genocide when people were butchering each other unselectively. They did not intervene there because they knew Rwanda had nothing in return for them. While this writer is not against western assistance in Nigeria but the issue is that Africa should not wait for the western assistance in such situations. Africa should organize herself and fight some terrorists groups so that the continent remains peaceful.

While the western countries failed to block the genocide in Rwanda, but in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where they knew of some minerals which they could benefit, they had to send forces there through the UN to fight back the rebels who were causing problems in that country some years back and those forces are still in the DRC. The reason for getting involved in the DRC was to make sure that they get access to the mineral resources in that country so that they feed their industries back in their countries with those minerals.

Africa should avoid having her resources exploited by the western countries by making sure that all the troubled spots in the continent are monitored and dealt with. The issue of the Boko Haram should be dealt with by the combined forces of Africa which can be drawn from countries in the continent. Terrorist groups should not be given spaces to thrive as they hinder development in Africa, hence, the AU should rise up against such threats and neutralize them so that the continent becomes safe to live.

Mukachana Hanyan is a Harare-based political and social commentator who can be contacted through mhanyani@yahoo.com