Understanding the Crisis: Girls in West Africa and Terrorism

“One Million Girls in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso are out of school because of terrorist attacks – Abduction is not a by-product of terrorism, it’s a tactic.” – United Nations

~800 men attend Mount Saint Joseph High School; now multiply that by 1,000, and you still will not reach anywhere near the amount of women suffering in Western Africa. Forget the numbers; each life, family, and loved one multiplies that number even further. All of which are suffering because of something entirely outside of their control.

Two armed soldiers in tactical gear are positioned near a brick wall, one crouched and aiming a rifle, while another soldier stands watch as a person peers out from a window.

Preventative measures could have been taken, but were prevented because of the failure of the wealthy. Following the exodus from colonial countries, including the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, West Africa was left to pick up the pieces forced upon it. While loosely supported by other countries, many nations, including Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, the Ivory Coast, and Niger, experienced rebellions, revolutions, civil wars, and insurgencies.

Besides Sierra Leone, these countries still struggle with crime and civil unrest, which only added fuel to the fire when Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin radically took advantage of Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali, and Nigeria.

Four military personnel are attending to an injured soldier on the ground during a training exercise in a wooded area.

When one learns about the Berlin Conference, it is more than easy to underestimate the severity of the flaws made at that conference. Notably, no one from Africa participated in the conference, which meant that the borders established there disrupted the cultural flow of life. Previously rivalling tribes and countries were now forced to live with one another in parts of Africa they had not previously been a part of. To make this situation clearer, consider the picture of an average Mount Saint Joseph student. Now, imagine that they were forced to live in a Mexican village at the border, and all that they previously knew was left behind in Maryland. That is, in a sense, what the 19th-20th-century Europeans were doing to African people.

The decisions made at the Berlin Conference relate to the crisis in Western Africa because the motivation of Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin is to replace the secular governments of West Africa with Islamic ones. Due to the split up of Africa, the people in West Africa had to adapt to their new governments that had been abandoned, and had to deal with terrorism immediately.

Two soldiers patrolling a dry, sandy landscape, wearing military uniforms and helmets, holding rifles.

9/11 and the war on terrorism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are all well-known modern historical events in America today. The main reason most people are aware of these events is that unless a global event directly impacts someone famous, it typically goes unnoticed by the majority of people in the United States. This is not the only example; plenty more in places such as Sudan, Myanmar, and Zimbabwe that still do not receive recognition from major countries.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no end in sight, as foreign aid from France and the United States ceased in March 2024. Now, hundreds of millions of people live at the risk of terrorism in West Africa, and very few people at Mount Saint Joseph High School know about it.