The notorious acts of terror at the hands of group called Boko Haram were highlighted at a House hearing held on Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), chairman of the Africa and global human rights subcommittee. Smith, who in recent days returned from a human rights trip to Nigeria, chaired the hearing with witnesses who discussed the terrorist organization’s attacks, and ways to assist the Nigerian government’s fight against Boko Haram.

    “Last week, I met in Abuja with one of the Chibok girls who escaped early on in the ordeal,” Smith said. “This brave young woman has suffered much and was clearly traumatized and in emotional pain. You could hear it in her voice and see it in her eyes as she sat motionless, recounting her story. Yet she spoke of her concern not for herself, but her friends and classmates who remain in captivity.”

    Smith noted that due to its repeated attacks against Christian targets during holy days such as Christmas and Easter, Boko Haram is seen by some as principally against religious freedom or tolerance. This past year alone, Boko Haram terrorists are believed to have killed more than 1,000 Christians in Nigeria. He said that what is happening in Nigeria is not just a Muslim-Christian conflict.          

    “I  met with a Muslim father of two girls abducted from the Chibok School. Fighting back tears, he said the agony was unbearable,” Smith said. “The story of his daughters underscored the fact that Boko Haram brutalizes Muslims as well.” Click here to read Smith’s opening remarks.

    Smith held a hearing in November 2013 featuring Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and head of the Bureau of African Affairs. The congressman visited Nigeria in September 2013 and heard from maimed victims of the terrorist group firsthand, returned to Washington and introduced the ‘‘Boko Haram Terrorist Designation Act of 2013,’’ H.Res. 3209. The State Department later agreed to declaration the group a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) at the November 13, 2013, House hearing chaired by Smith.

    The congressional hearing entitled “The Ongoing Struggle Against Boko Haram,” was held before members of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations. The human rights organizations witnesses were: Dr. J. Peter Pham, Ph.D., Director, Africa Center, Atlantic Council; Emmanuel Ogebe, Manager, Justice for Jos Project, Jubilee Campaign USA; Anslem John-Miller, Representative to the U.S., Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People; the Honorable Robin Renee Sanders, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Chief Executive Officer of FEEEDS Advocacy Initiative.

    During the trip grim reports emerged of a June 2 attack at the hands of Boko Haram in which hundreds of people in three villages were murdered.

    After a more than a year-long congressional campaign to achieve a U.S. declaration of Boko Haram and its affiliate organization Ansaru as a FTO, the U.S. State Department made the declaration at Smith’s November 2013 hearing. Administration officials have been measured in their efforts to provide assistance due to a lack of Nigerian interagency cooperation and human rights issues involving Nigerian forces involved in anti-Boko Haram effort. Smith also held a hearing in 2012 on Nigeria.

    “When then-Assistant Secretary of State Johnny Carson told us in our July 2012 hearing on Nigeria that Boko Haram’s attacks were caused mostly by animus against the Nigerian government, he was wrong in his apportionment of cause and effect,” Smith said. “There is tremendous animus toward the Nigerian government and an effort to embarrass President Jonathan.  However, Boko Haram is determined to convert or kill Christians, and Muslims they believe oppose them.”  

    “Boko Haram has grown increasingly virulent since 2009, reflecting significant transformations in capacity, tactics, and ideology,” Pham said. “The group has expanded its links with al-Qaeda affiliates—although… Boko Haram is not so much an al-Qaeda affiliate as a ‘friend of a friend’—and possibly other violent non-state actors.” Click here to read Pham’s statement.

    “I commend the government and people of the United States for condemning the kidnappings of the Chibok girls and the Obama Administration’s efforts with the Nigerian Government to secure the release of these girls,” John-Miller said. “I am positive that with such collaboration, the Chibok girls would ultimately be re-united with their families. On the current efforts to rescue the abducted Chibok Girls, I must emphasize that the United States and other countries involved encourage the Nigerian Government to employ every means available at its disposal including diplomacy to secure their release.” Click here to read John-Millers statement.

    Ogebe said that global outrage has finally focused on the atrocities unleashed by the terrorist group Boko Haram years after the House panel Smith chairs “took the lead in alerting the world about these alarming killers” but noted there was insufficient actual domestic or multilateral action in Nigeria to truly bring back the girls.

    “Prior to the Chibok schoolgirl abductions, much of the international response was inattention and inaction, now it is attention but inadequate action,” said Ogebe. “It took the U.S. twenty-five months after the first two American’s were attacked and one year after the third and fourth Americans were targeted before Boko Haram was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization. It took the U.K. sixteen months from the time its first citizen was killed by Boko Haram to legally brand them terrorists. It took the U.N. thirty three months after the U.N. H.Q. in Nigeria was bombed before Boko Haram was sanctioned as an Al-Qaida-linked terror group.” Click here to read Ogebe’s statement.

    Former Ambassador Sanders said Nigerian security services need to regroup, re-approach, and re-address Boko Haram and “get off their heels on the defense and get on an aggressive offense. This has not happened yet, and Boko Haram has not only succeeded in terrorizing 60,000 square miles of territory, but also as evident with the late April 2014 attacks, they have the ability to reach locations just 15 kilometers outside of Abuja, either with sleepers cells or with bombs getting past checkpoints.” Click here to read her full statement.