    [House Hearing, 114 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                   THE U.S. ROLE IN HELPING NIGERIA CONFRONT
                        BOKO HARAM AND OTHER THREATS IN
                                NORTHERN NIGERIA

    =======================================================================

                                    HEARING

                                   BEFORE THE

                     SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,
                            GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND
                          INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

                                     OF THE

                          COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
                            HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                        ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 SECOND SESSION

                                   __________

                                  MAY 11, 2016

                                   __________

                               Serial No. 114-210

                                   __________

            Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

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                          COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

                     EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
    CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey     ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
    ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida         BRAD SHERMAN, California
    DANA ROHRABACHER, California         GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
    STEVE CHABOT, Ohio                   ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
    JOE WILSON, South Carolina           GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
    MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas             THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
    TED POE, Texas                       BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
    MATT SALMON, Arizona                 KAREN BASS, California
    DARRELL E. ISSA, California          WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
    TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania             DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
    JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina          ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
    MO BROOKS, Alabama                   AMI BERA, California
    PAUL COOK, California                ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
    RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas            GRACE MENG, New York
    SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania            LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
    RON DeSANTIS, Florida                TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
    MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina         JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
    TED S. YOHO, Florida                 ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
    CURT CLAWSON, Florida                BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
    SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee
    REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin
    DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan
    LEE M. ZELDIN, New York
    DANIEL DONOVAN, New York

         Amy Porter, Chief of Staff      Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director

                   Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
                                     ------

        Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
                          International Organizations

                   CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
    MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina         KAREN BASS, California
    CURT CLAWSON, Florida                DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
    SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee          AMI BERA, California
    DANIEL DONOVAN, New York

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------
                                                                       Page

                                   WITNESSES

    The Honorable Frank R. Wolf, distinguished senior fellow, 21st
      Century Wilberforce Initiative.................................     9
    Mr. Emmanuel Ogebe, special counsel, Justice for Jos Project.....    18
    ``Sa'a'', Chibok schoolgirl, Education Must Continue Initiative..    55
    Christopher Fomunyoh, Ph.D., senior associate and regional
      director for Central and West Africa, National Democratic
      Institute......................................................    60

              LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING

    The Honorable Frank R. Wolf: Prepared statement..................    14
    Mr. Emmanuel Ogebe: Prepared statement...........................    22
    ``Sa'a'': Prepared statement.....................................    57
    Christopher Fomunyoh, Ph.D.: Prepared statement..................    62

                                    APPENDIX

    Hearing notice...................................................    80
    Hearing minutes..................................................    81
    The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress
      from the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on
      Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International
      Organizations: Statement from Refugees International...........    82

                        THE U.S. ROLE IN HELPING NIGERIA

                         CONFRONT BOKO HARAM AND OTHER

                          THREATS IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

                                  ----------

                            WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2016

                           House of Representatives,

                     Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,

             Global Human Rights, and International Organizations,

                         Committee on Foreign Affairs,

                                Washington, DC.

        The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:31 p.m., in
    room 2255, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H.
    Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
        Mr. Smith. The subcommittee will come to order, and
    welcome. A number of members are on their way, so I will just
    start with my opening comments and then yield to Ms. Bass and
    other members as they come in.
        Let me just say at the outset--and I will be introducing,
    obviously, all of our distinguished witnesses after opening
    statements--but I just want to welcome back to the U.S. House
    of Representatives a 17-term, 34-year Member of the House,
    Frank Wolf, who is truly the William Wilberforce of the U.S.
    Congress. He continues that work now, as we all know, as the
    distinguished senior fellow for the 21st Century Wilberforce
    Initiative and the Jerry and Susie Wilson chair in religious
    freedom at Baylor University.
        Frank Wolf, as I think many of you know, is the author of
    the landmark law on religious freedom. It is called the
    International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.
        That legislation was strongly opposed by the Clinton
    administration. I remember chairing hearings on it. He wrote
    the language and did a magnificent job shepherding it both
    through the House and the Senate, but it was opposed by the
    administration.
        But at the end of the day, with a nose up, the President,
    in this case President Clinton, signed it, and it has made all
    the difference in the world. And as I think many of you know,
    it not only created the International Religious Freedom office
    and, obviously, established a number of mutually reinforcing
    sanctions, 18 of them that now the President has in his toolbox
    to promote religious freedom, but it also established an
    independent commission, the purpose of which is to really
    advise Congress, and, frankly, the President, to be a clear,
    nonambiguous voice about religious freedom.
        And all of that, every bit of that is attributable to Frank
    Wolf. And I want to thank him again for that extraordinary
    effort.
        I saw firsthand his devotion to human rights on a myriad of
    ways, including trips with Frank to prison camps all over the
    world, including in the Soviet Union. The infamous Perm Camp
    35, where Natan Sharansky spent so many years of his life and
    other political prisoners, a godforsaken place in Perm Oblast,
    a place that no Americans had been to simply because it was off
    limits to everyone. Over the course of 2 years he negotiated
    his way, and I joined him, to Perm Camp, where we met with
    prisoners, videotaped them. And one by one they actually got
    out of that prison camp.
        I saw it again when we were in a Gulag in China, Beijing
    Prison Number 1. There were at least 40 Tiananmen Square
    activists there who were in servitude. They were truly being
    exploited. And that was closed, that Beijing Prison Number 1,
    because Frank had the good sense to ask the warden--his name
    was Zhou--for a box of what they were producing there, socks
    and jelly shoes, which were all the rage among young girls at
    the time in this country and in Europe for export. He brought
    that over to the commissioner to the State Department, they put
    an import ban on it, and Beijing Prison Number 1 closed its
    doors because we have a law that precludes importation of
    slave-made goods. That was Frank Wolf.
        We saw it again in Vukovar, a city that was under siege by
    Slobodan Milosevic. After that we met with Slobodan Milosevic--
    and he lied through his teeth, war criminal that he is--and
    made strong and persistent efforts to mitigate the effects of
    that war, because right after Croatia, which is where Vukovar
    is, they went into Bosnia and did more killing. But Frank was
    right at the forefront of that in Romania and so many other
    countries.
        And Africa, the first Member of Congress to push so
    aggressively, and Sam Brownback was part of that effort as
    well, to say that in Sudan there is a genocide going on and we
    not only need to raise our voices, we need to put into place
    policies that will hopefully end that genocide.
        So Frank Wolf is truly a leader. He is a man of deep
    Christian faith. He walks the walk in a way worthy of his
    calling. He also chaired, as I think many of you may know,
    several Appropriations subcommittees, including Commerce,
    Justice, and Science, his last perch, leadership post, and
    wrote a number of laws, including nine major appropriations
    bills.
        So a man of great legislative accomplishment. But it is his
    heart for the weak and disenfranchised and his advocacy for
    religious freedom that has and continues to make all the
    difference in the world.
        So, Mr. Wolf, welcome.
        Nigeria is Africa's most populous country, as we all know,
    with more than 180 million people, roughly divided between
    Muslims and Christians, and including numerous ethnic groups.
        Nigeria's Muslim population is among the largest in the
    world and has likely overtaken Egypt as the largest on the
    continent. Lagos, its commercial center, is among the world's
    largest cities. Nigeria also is Africa's largest economy and
    largest oil producer. Nigeria has long been a top troop
    contributor to U.N. peacekeeping operations and is a major
    political force on the continent.
        I would note, parenthetically, one time in Darfur I myself
    hooked up with a group of peacekeepers and they were from
    Nigeria. I was in Sarajevo during the Balkan War and there was
    the same man, Major Ajumbo. So they really have distinguished
    themselves as providers of peacekeepers who have done great
    work around the world.
        Unfortunately, that stability that they have striven for
    has been under increasing threat in recent years. Disgruntled
    elements of mostly Muslim Kanuri ethnic group in 2003 created
    Boko Haram, a violent extremist group based in the northeast.
        Boko Haram is considered the deadliest terrorist group in
    the world, responsible for 6,664 deaths last year alone.
    Neglect of the region has limited potential support of the
    Kanuris and other ethnic groups for government efforts to
    combat the terror threats in northern Nigeria.
        Elsewhere in northern Nigeria, Fulani herdsmen have clashed
    with a multitude of ethnic groups of farmers, multi-ethnic
    farmers, leaving 3,000 people dead since 2010.
        Meanwhile, the growing number of confrontational Shiites in
    northern Nigeria recently resulted in a December 2015 massacre
    in Zaria in Kaduna State in which an as yet undetermined number
    of civilians and military were killed. The number of dead is
    believed to be in the hundreds, but there are several ongoing
    investigations of this incident.
        This subcommittee has long held hearings, many hearings on
    various aspects of Nigeria's situation, including specifically
    attacks by Boko Haram. Staff Director Greg Simpkins and I have
    visited Abuja and Jos several times. Jos is a city where
    numerous churches were fire bombed by Boko Haram and I know Mr.
    Wolf has just been there with his delegation.
        Today's hearing will examine the ongoing fight against the
    terrorist group Boko Haram and other conflicts in northern
    Nigeria in an effort to determine the best way for the U.S.
    Government to help address these challenges in the context of
    our overall Nigeria policy.
        The Nigerian Government has struggled to respond to the
    continuing threat posed by Boko Haram. U.S. officials have
    expressed continuing concern about Boko Haram's impact in
    Nigeria and neighboring countries and its ties with other
    extremist groups, notably the self-proclaimed Islamic State in
    Syria and Iraq, to which Boko Haram pledged allegiance in 2015.
        The recruitment of Nigerians by other transnational
    terrorist groups also has been a concern. The State Department
    designated Boko Haram and a splinter faction, Ansaru, as
    Foreign Terrorist Organizations, or FTOs, in November 2013
    following sustained efforts by this subcommittee. I would note,
    parenthetically, the day we were going to mark up a resolution
    that I had introduced to so designate, they made that
    proclamation. It was 2 to 3 years late in coming.
        The U.S. Government has made every effort to support
    Nigeria's battle against Boko Haram, but our counterterrorism
    training was suspended by the previous Nigerian Government. It
    has been resumed, I am happy to say, and it is much needed.
    Boko Haram commenced a territorial offensive in mid-2014 that
    Nigerian forces struggled to reverse until early 2015, when
    regional military forces, primarily from neighboring Chad,
    launched an offensive against the group. The Nigerian Army has
    since reclaimed most of the territory, although many areas
    remain insecure.
        One of the witnesses today, Emmanuel Ogebe, recently told
    of his meeting with a Christian woman named Saratu in a refugee
    camp in northern Nigeria: ``She had just returned from
    searching for her four children, ages 14, 11, 8, and 7, who had
    been abducted by Boko Haram from an attack on her town in 2014.
    She traveled to the front lines,'' he went on to say, ``asking
    soldiers if they saw her kids. She went to IDP camps. This is
    the life of many today in northern Nigeria.''
        We recently commemorated the tragic 2-year anniversary of
    the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls from the town of
    Chibok in northeastern Nigeria. We have with us today Sa'a, one
    of the girls who escaped this mass kidnapping. But many of her
    classmates were not so fortunate. Many of these schoolgirls are
    believed to have been forced to convert to Islam and marry to
    Boko Haram fighters or prostituted by this egregious group. We
    now receive reports that some of them may be used as suicide
    bombers.
        As if the menace posed by Boko Haram was not enough of a
    challenge for the government of President Buhari there is the
    growing crisis in Nigeria's Middle Belt, largely caused by
    clashes between Fulani herdsmen and a multi-ethic group of
    farmers. Some of the violence is a result of conflicts over
    cattle rustling on encroachment on private land. Nevertheless,
    according to the current Global Terrorism Index, Fulani
    militants operating in Nigeria and Central African Republic are
    considered the fourth-deadliest militant group in Africa behind
    Boko Haram, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and al-Shabaab.
        More recently, a new threat has been added to the volatile
    northern region. Although the majority of Nigerian Muslims are
    Sunni, there are between 1 million and 3 million Shia
    consecrated in Kano, Nassarawa, and Kaduna States. A member of
    the recent staff delegations that visited Kaduna found a high
    level of concern by Sunni Muslim leaders about what they
    described as an assertive Shia presence reportedly supported by
    Iran.
        Since the 1980s, the Shiite Islamic Movement in Nigeria, or
    IMN, has existed as a state within a state. Despite being a
    professed nonviolent movement, the IMN has made itself a public
    nuisance, blocking roads on the days they have processions,
    thus preventing citizens from accessing medical care in a
    timely fashion. It is for these social and religious reasons
    why the group is not sympathetic, even in light of what is
    believed to have occurred last December.
        Although the details of what happened in the town of Zaria
    appear to be murky, the U.S. Embassy beliefs that Chief of
    Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai was attending a
    graduation ceremony in Zaria during the anticipated IMN
    religious procession. A Nigerian security force deployed to
    protect Buratai's route had an altercation with IMN members.
    Claiming that there was an assassination attempt on Burati, the
    Nigerian military opened fire. Again, the exact number of
    people killed is not known, but this is a very serious
    potential escalation in that region.
        I would like to now yield to my very distinguished
    colleague, Ms. Bass, for any opening comments she might have.
        Ms. Bass. Mr. Chairman, thank you for conducting this
    critical and once again timely hearing.
        I welcome the witnesses and look forward to your
    perspectives on the deterioration of peace and security,
    particularly in northern Nigeria.
        We know that Nigeria as a whole is a vibrant, dynamic
    country aspiring toward democracy, as evidenced by the 2015
    elections. And as one of your expert witnesses has cited in the
    past, the country's vibrant private sector, civil society,
    labor unions, and professional associations are essential
    ingredients for a democratic society.
        Also, Nigeria, with some 250 different ethnicities, is the
    most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa with a population
    in excess of 180 million people. In the United States,
    Nigerian-Americans compose in part a well-educated and
    entrepreneurial diaspora, and Nigerians are known to be some of
    the most educated immigrants that come to the United States.
        Nigeria has long been an important economic ally of the
    U.S., and Abuja is also a critically important recipient of and
    leading regional actor in the U.S. and regional
    counterterrorism initiatives.
        However, over the past few years international commentary
    about this regional economic powerhouse has had to address
    increasingly the murderous attacks by Boko Haram on the
    impoverished communities of northeast Nigeria, the kidnapping
    of Chibok girls, and many others. I imagine that our colleague
    Frederica Wilson will probably be here with us today, and she
    has led the effort in the House to fight for the return of the
    Chibok girls.
        I have been dismayed when I hear of children being used as
    suicide bombers. And I have to say ``suicide'' implies that
    they consented. And to me, I think ``human bombs'' is a more
    accurate description of this atrocity.
        All of these crises are exacerbating ethno-religious
    differences in the north and pose strong challenges to the
    government of President Buhari. His administration must not
    only contend with the terrorist activity of Boko Haram, but
    must address thoroughly the humanitarian plight of the growing
    population of internally displaced individuals in Nigeria. To
    sidestep their plight could result in further alienating these
    communities and prompt them to support terrorist activities.
        Again, all of these complex issues must be dealt with
    impartially, succinctly, and swiftly by the Government of
    Nigeria, mindful always of the delicate ethnic, socioeconomic,
    and sectarian divide in the country.
        Of particular interest to me, and perhaps the witnesses can
    address, why these issues, notably the longstanding antagonism
    between the pastoralists and farmers, are coming to a head so
    violently and at this particular time and what role growing
    sectarian differences play in the situation.
        Again, Mr. Chairman, I look forward to hearing from all of
    our witnesses today regarding the recommended strategic next
    steps to be taken by the United States and the Buhari
    Government. Thank you.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you, Ms. Bass.
        Mr. Meadows.
        Mr. Meadows. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I will be brief.
        But I want to give a little bit of hope in that there are
    hearings that go on time and time and time again, and some
    would suggest that the hearings go on with very little fruit.
    But I also would like to note that a number of hearings at the
    direction of Chairman Smith have not only produced fruit, but
    produced lasting fruit.
        And so it is your leadership, Chairman Smith, and obviously
    your leadership as well, Ms. Bass, that I applaud.
        Mr. Wolf, I want to say it is so good to see you again. And
    there is no one who has fought more diligently for the rights
    of those who perhaps can't speak for themselves throughout his
    career as Frank Wolf. And so it is this body who has lost out
    at your new endeavor, but it is certainly the world's gain,
    because you continue to fight with passion for those that are
    suffering without regard to personal well-being. And so I just
    want to say thank you for being here.
        But perhaps more telling than that will be the witness that
    has, unfortunately, got to experience a lot of this tragedy
    that we will be talking about here today. I think there will be
    no more compelling testimony than to actually hear from someone
    who has seen it up close and personal. And for America to act,
    they must first understand and feel the horror and the passion
    that so many in Nigeria and throughout northern Africa feel
    when there is persecution that goes on.
        So you have my commitment that not only will this be a
    hearing, but it will be something that we will continue to
    follow up with on a bipartisan manner to try to make sure that
    results are significant and lasting, and ultimately that fear
    does not reign in the hearts of little girls and others in
    Nigeria.
        And so I want to thank all of the witnesses for being here
    and express my apology, we are actually monitoring this, I have
    another hearing to go to in about 10 minutes. But we will be
    monitoring and following up.
        And thank you for your leadership, both of you.
        Mr. Smith. Mr. Meadows, thank you for your leadership, and
    hopefully you can get back after that other hearing.
        I would like to recognize Mr. Donovan, the gentleman from
    New York.
        Mr. Donovan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I echo my colleague
    Mr. Meadows' remarks. And I am going to yield the remainder of
    my time so we give the witnesses more time to speak and
    testify. Thank you.
        Mr. Smith. I would like to yield to the chairman of the
    Congressional International Religious Freedom Caucus,
    Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona.
        Mr. Franks. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        And thank all of you for being here today. It is an honor
    for me to be here among you. And I also will point out one
    Frank Wolf in the audience. I think there should be a 70-foot
    bronze statue of him out in front of Capitol, because he has
    been such a warrior, as Mr. Meadows spoke so succinctly, for
    those who don't have a voice, for those who need to be defended
    but there is no one there to defend them. There is nothing more
    noble than that.
        Mr. Chairman, I guess I'd just ask for diplomatic immunity,
    because Boko Haram has terrorized innocent Nigerians for over a
    decade and clear links were made between the group and other
    insidious terrorist organizations many years ago. And I was
    very disappointed in the administration's response to Boko
    Haram. Our office was engaged on this issue for a number of
    years, and when we approached Hillary Clinton's State
    Department the response was excruciatingly slow. They just
    simply didn't consider Boko Haram at the time a significant
    terrorist threat and played down our concerns.
        In response to a letter from Members of Congress in 2012
    the State Department said, ``The religious tension, while real,
    should not be mistaken as the primary source of violence in
    Nigeria.'' While there are other certain factors contributing
    to the abhorrent violence against innocent men, women and
    children in Nigeria, Mr. Chairman, religious motivation should
    not be dismissed so callously.
        Boko Haram has since publicly supported the Islamic State,
    which calls for the extermination of Christians and Jews and
    others who do not conform to their radical ideology. And the
    State Department also noted support provided to Nigerian's law
    enforcement entities to enhance counterterrorism efforts, but
    what do we have to show for those efforts? There has been no
    real follow-up in any way that I know of.
        According to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index, two of the
    top deadliest organizations in the world operate in Nigeria.
    Boko Haram ranked first as the most deadly terrorist
    organization in 2014. The Fulani militants, who I am sure we
    will hear more about today, ranked fourth.
        To this end, I guess I just remain, Mr. Chairman, very
    disappointed that the administration has failed to respond
    appropriately to this threat posed by Boko Haram and other
    terrorist organizations. Our outreach and letter of concern
    happened over a year before the Chibok girls were kidnapped. If
    the response had been timely, only God knows whether the
    tragedy that happened there could have been prevented. And I
    think it is just another disgraceful chapter in the
    administration's shameful response to the spread of terrorism
    throughout the world.
        So it is my sincere hope that this country, which has long
    served as an impetus for freedom and justice around the world,
    will renew its moral conviction, and even its political will,
    to combat Boko Haram and other organizations who threaten the
    peace and security of innocent Nigerians or innocent people
    anywhere.
        To our panelists, I again want to express my gratitude to
    each of you for your efforts. I look forward to hearing what
    you have to say, but I am in the same situation Mr. Meadows is.
    That is kind of reality around here. I am not going to be able
    to stay for the hearing.
        But I thank all of you for being here. I suppose the
    hardest part that you face is knowing that there are some
    innocent people out there that help will never come for in
    time. That is a heartbreaker. That moves my soul very deeply.
    That is the hardest part.
        I don't know how we really deal with that emotionally or
    otherwise. It should break our hearts, but it should not
    paralyze us and prevent us from reaching out and helping out
    all that that we can. And the fact that you are doing that is,
    I think, a profound honor in your own right. So God bless every
    one of you and thank you.
        And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the time.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Franks.
        I would like to now welcome our distinguished witnesses to
    the panel table, beginning first with Congressman Frank Wolf.
    As I said a few moments ago and I will not repeat all of it,
    but he is a lawmaker with very few equals, in my opinion.
    Elected the same year as Ronald Reagan in 1980, he served 34
    years in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is now the
    distinguished senior fellow for the 21st Century Wilberforce
    Initiative and the Jerry and Susie Wilson chair in religious
    freedom at Baylor University.
        As I mentioned earlier, he is the author of numerous laws,
    including and especially the International Religious Freedom
    Act of 1998. He has been in refugee camps all over the world,
    especially in Africa, worked on human rights issues with
    persecuted believers in China, Tibet, Romania, Nagorno-
    Karabakh, Chechnya, Bosnia. How many people have gone to
    Chechnya? A show of hands. Frank Wolf has really been in some
    of the toughest places in the world, Bosnia, Kosovo, East
    Timor, and the Middle East of course.
        We will then hear from Mr. Emmanuel Ogebe, who is an
    international human rights lawyer specializing in Africa, and
    he currently serves as special counsel of the Justice for Jos
    Project. He earned the singular distinction of being the
    youngest law graduate in his home country of Nigeria.
        Exiled to the United States after becoming one of Nigeria's
    political detainees during the brutal years of military rule,
    Mr. Ogebe has played a role, a key role, in shaping policy in
    Nigeria's quest for a stable democracy.
        He has testified before this subcommittee previously, has
    provided great counsel and insight to me, to my staff, and
    others about what is truly going on in Nigeria, particularly as
    it relates to Boko Haram. And he has also been a guest speaker
    at university campuses across the U.S. and around the world. He
    has spoken at the Geneva Summit, the United Nations, World
    Bank, Canadian Parliament, and, again, before other
    parliaments.
        Then we will hear from Sa'a, who was one of the 276
    schoolgirls who was kidnapped from the government secondary
    school in Chibok by the terrorist group Boko Haram 2 years ago
    but escaped by jumping off a truck. Sa'a has twice escaped from
    Boko Haram attacks on her schools. When Sa'a survived the first
    attack at her previous government secondary school in Bama, her
    parents decided to move her and enroll her in the Chibok
    secondary school because they thought it would be a safer place
    to continue her education.
        She currently is attending college in the United States
    under a project by the Education Must Continue Initiative, a
    charity run by victims of the insurgency for victims of the
    insurgency. Sa'a is a pseudonym that she uses for protection.
        Thank you for being here and your willingness to testify.
        We will then hear from Dr. Chris Fomunyoh, who is currently
    serving as the senior associate and regional director for
    central and west Africa at the National Democratic Institute.
    Dr. Fomunyoh has organized and advised international election
    observation missions and designed and supervised country-
    specific democracy support programs with civic organizations,
    political parties, and legislative bodies throughout central
    and west Africa.
        He recently designed and helped launch the African
    Statesmen Initiative, a program aimed at facilitating political
    transitions in Africa by encouraging former democratic heads of
    state. He is also an adjunct faculty at the Africa Center for
    Strategic Studies and a former adjunct professor of African
    politics and government at Georgetown University.
        Congressman Wolf.

    STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE FRANK R. WOLF, DISTINGUISHED SENIOR
              FELLOW, 21ST CENTURY WILBERFORCE INITIATIVE

        Mr. Wolf. Thank you, Mr. Smith, for your comments. I
    appreciate it.
        I want to thank Chairman Smith and the members of the
    committee for having this hearing today, and particularly thank
    Mr. Smith for his leadership over the many years. I also want
    to begin by saying that these are my personal observations.
    However, a detailed trip report will be released on June 9 at
    an event here by the 21st Century Wilberforce Group.
        I, along Randel Everett, president of 21st Century
    Wilberforce Initiative, Elijah Brown, executive vice president,
    and Lou Ann Sabatier, director of communications, traveled to
    Nigeria in late February this year. We arranged our own
    itinerary. We did not travel with the U.S. State Department. We
    traveled to three states with representatives from the Stefanos
    Foundation, a Nigerian nonprofit that has worked for 14 years
    in relief, restoration, and rebuilding lives and communities
    ravaged, ravaged by violence and persecution in northern
    Nigeria.
        We met with representatives from nine states in the north
    who traveled to spend several hours with us, sharing stories
    and documentations of persecution. And much of the time was
    spent in Jos and the surrounding area, often referred to as the
    Middle Belt.
        We listened, we listened to hundreds of individuals in
    small villages and remote areas miles off the main roads. We
    talked to tribal leaders, pastors, mothers and fathers, as well
    as government officials and our own Embassy personnel. We heard
    about the pain, suffering, and agony that the people in
    northern and central Nigeria have faced and continue to face.
    Many of the people we spoke to believe the world is not
    concerned with their problems, and I must say I tend to agree.
        As a result, it is clear that the crisis plaguing Nigeria
    is multifaceted, but one that must be addressed not only by the
    Nigerian Government, but our Government and the international
    community.
        Corruption. One significant issue is corruption. It is in
    the government at the Federal level, state level. It is in
    business. It is in the military. One cannot enter the country
    without corruption raising its insidious head.
        Transparency International ranks Nigeria 136 out of 168
    countries. That is the bottom 20 percent. Given their
    population size and economic output, this means that a vast
    number of people have to suffer the costs and the injustice of
    corruption.
        Poverty. Despite the fact that according to the latest
    available data from the World Bank Nigeria is the richest
    country in Africa, yet there is immense poverty. Unemployment
    is a huge issue. According to the National Bureau of
    Statistics, it has been increasing since 2005 and now stands at
    or above 20 percent.
        The falling oil prices are hitting the economy broadly. The
    percentage of people living in poverty, at less than $1.90 a
    day, is 53.6 percent. That is 2009, it is probably much higher.
        Terrorism. According to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index,
    more than half, 51 percent of all global deaths attributed to a
    terrorist group were committed by either Boko Haram or the
    Islamic State. Nigeria has experienced the largest increase in
    terrorist deaths, more than 300 percent from 2014 to 2015, with
    fatalities at least 7,512 in 2015.
        Nine of the top 20 most fatal terrorist attacks occurred in
    Nigeria in 2014. The deadliest terrorist organization in the
    world, according to the number killed, are Boko Haram, the
    Islamic State, al-Shabaab, and the Fulani herdsmen.
        Boko Haram. Terrorism and violence continue from the well-
    known Boko Haram terrorist group, whose name means ``Western
    education is forbidden.'' According to the Global Terrorism
    Index 2015 for the Institute of Economics and Peace at the
    University Maryland, Boko Haram killed 6,664 Nigerians in 2014,
    more than ISIS elsewhere in the world. That makes them the
    single most deadly terrorist organization in the world. You
    would never know it listening or reading the media, but it is a
    fact. In a recent report by Refugees International, they
    indicate that reportedly 20,000 have been killed in total as a
    result of the insurgency.
        In 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS. This
    affiliation means that Boko Haram is now part of that
    organization's declaration of war against both the Nigerian
    Government and our own Government, the American Government.
        Boko Haram attacks villages, conducts drive-by shootings,
    uses young girls as suicide bombers, they target politicians
    and clerics for assassination, focusing on the symbols of
    Western advancement such as schools, hospitals, churches, and
    mosques.
        While no one has an exact number, thousands of young girls
    have been abducted by Boko Haram. According to the Washington
    Post, young girls and women who have been raped but released by
    Boko Haram face extreme stigmatizing from their communities
    where many label them ``Boko Haram wives'' and fear that they
    have been radicalized. They are the victims twice. They are
    victims when they are captured and they are victims many times
    when they are released.
        Just last month we commemorated the 2-year anniversary of
    the kidnapping of the Chibok girls. And despite the loud
    protests in the West and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign
    championed by First Lady Michelle Obama and Prime Minister
    Cameron and many others, it is extremely doubtful that any of
    the girls have been released.
        One counselor who we met with up in the Jos area spoke,
    told us that the girls who have been captured may never return
    without a major concerted effort by the Nigerian Government and
    the West. And when they do return, and I am hopeful and
    optimistic that they will return, they will have been victims
    of sexual violence, and they are oftentimes pregnant and will
    have been forced to convert to Islam. That is what the
    counselor told us.
        Fulani herdsmen. Unfortunately, Boko Haram is not the only
    violent organization that plagues Nigeria. The Fulani, who I
    had heard very, very little about before visiting Nigeria, the
    Fulani herdsmen are a large tribal grouping that stretches over
    many northwestern African countries and follow migratory
    grazing patterns. Some of these herdsmen adhere to more
    radicalized versions of Islam, and this is having a significant
    and devastating impact on the predominantly Christian farming
    communities in the Middle Belt.
        The Global Terrorism Index has identified them as the
    fourth most deadly terrorist organization in the world. That
    means Nigeria has the first and the fourth most dangerous
    terrorist groups in their country.
        While we were in Nigeria, Agatu village was attacked, and I
    know Emmanuel will talk more about that. Two hundred to 300
    were killed over a sustained 2- to 3-day attack. And the
    attackers did not move on, but rather occupied homes within the
    village. And there were reports on the ground that indicated
    that sophisticated resupply systems were used, including, we
    were told, two helicopters and boats.
        Attacks like this go beyond the settler-herder conflict.
    There has been an obvious increase in violence in 2013 and the
    Fulani militants killed 63; in 2014, 1,249.
        The IDPs, the internally displaced people. Due to the
    violence from groups like Boko Haram and the Fulani militants,
    there are thousands of internally displaced people scattered
    around the country. According to recent estimates, there are
    2.1 million people who are internally displaced and more have
    fled to neighboring countries. Unofficially, however, we were
    told there are about 5 million who have been displaced. We have
    been told that 90 percent of the IDPs are dispersed among
    villages and are outside of official camps and therefore they
    are unable to access even the limited government services.
        In the Refugee International report, which I know the
    committee probably has, it is a very powerful report, a senior
    U.N. official was quoted as stating, ``Nigeria is our biggest
    failure.'' This aligns with the stories we heard over and over
    on the ground.
        Some recommendations based on the challenges. One,
    strategic geopolitical and national security interests are at
    stake. Many organizations, including local groups like the
    Stefanos Foundation and an international one such as
    MercyCorps, are doing the vital work. However, much, much,
    much, much more needs to be done. They are barely touching,
    scratching the surface of what has to be done.
        Congress and the U.N. should do everything it can to aid
    IDP camps and support efforts at distribution in novel ways for
    those IDPs who are not, for various reasons, in camps. The
    types of aid should not only include food and medicine, but
    psychosocial services for the rehabilitation of victims as well
    as for former members of Boko Haram who are attempting to
    reintegrate into the communities.
        We visited prison two different times. They said they would
    let us talk to Boko Haram. Each time we got there we were
    ready, and then they pulled them back.
        Groups like International Justice Mission or Shared Hope,
    which have done an excellent job with regard to counseling and
    rehabilitation of women and girls, could provide valuable
    training to groups and individuals. I would hope the State
    Department would send IJM and Shared Hope and groups like that
    over to work with the Nigerian Government to help them set it
    up. We can't just talk about this. The people who are released,
    they need counseling, and I think IJM and Shared Hope could do
    that.
        Congress should also investigate the connection between
    ISIS and Boko Haram and integrate strategies as appropriate to
    deal with them. It is my understanding that the NSC has
    internally designated Boko Haram as part of ISIS. If this is
    indeed the case, there should be increased funding available
    for security purposes.
        While I generally support the Leahy amendment, and Senator
    Leahy has been a great person on these issues and I do support
    it, the Nigerian military has serious problems with corruption
    and human rights abuses. I believe that it would be beneficial
    to find every way possible in which the U.S. could provide
    vital human rights training to the Nigerian military and
    security forces.
        There were constant stories we heard that the military came
    in, the police came in, the people had uniforms. Were they
    really the police? Were they really the military? Did they
    steal the uniforms? But over and over and over and over.
        So human rights training should be included in basic
    training for new recruits and promotional courses for existing
    soldiers. This is critical.
        Special envoy. I believe that a special envoy for Nigeria
    and the Lake Chad district, not just Nigeria, but for the Lake
    Chad region, could be a strategic benefit because many of the
    problems involve Nigeria and the surrounding countries. Such a
    position could be modeled after Senator Danforth, formerly the
    Special Envoy to Sudan, or Knox Thames, who is the Special
    Advisor for Religion Minorities in the Near East and South/
    Central Asia.
        I understand there is a coordinator on Boko Haram within
    the State Department, and he is a good person. Perhaps this
    position could be elevated to that of a special envoy and
    expanded to include all terrorism, including the Fulani
    militants, human rights, refugee assistance, counseling, a one-
    stop, one-place coordinator.
        There are a lot of good people working on these issues
    within our own Government. However, I believe a special envoy
    would provide those seeking assistance a one-stop. We talk to
    Nigerians, they say they come to America, they don't know where
    to go. Do they go to the State Department? Do they go to USAID?
    Do they go to DOD? Who do they talk to? So I think it would be
    a one-stop for those seeking assistance while also coordinating
    with the Embassies in Nigeria, in Chad, in Cameroon, and Niger
    on various issues.
        The issue of Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen are not
    localized to Nigeria but transcend the bordering countries. A
    special envoy could help coordinate necessary assistance
    throughout the region. There was an April 23 New York Times
    article where it said Boko Haram moves easily across the
    border. So it is not just in one location.
        Military assistance, and I know we are doing much. The U.S.
    Military and other Western nations should use all possible
    assistance to help the Nigerian Government. We also should have
    churches in the West to be engaged with Nigerian churches,
    Catholic to Catholic, Baptist to Baptist, Anglican to Anglican,
    in order to help the local congregations.
        Also, the Multinational Joint Task Force consisting of
    security forces from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Benin,
    they also have to have human rights training.
        Lastly, the challenges that face Nigeria are great.
    However, I believe that the United States and other Western
    nations have a vested interest in confronting one of the worst
    crises of the current day. One of the members on our delegation
    said Nigeria--and it sort of caught--he said Nigeria has been
    fractured and forgotten.
        And it is my hope--and, Mr. Smith, you have done a great,
    and Ms. Bass, on these issues before--that this hearing will
    light the spark that is needed to elevate this crisis to the
    place that it deserves.
        And, lastly, I heard the musician, an Irish singer, Bono,
    the other day on television. There are 180 million people in
    Nigeria. He said if Nigeria unravels, or if part of it
    unravels, he said it is an existential threat to Europe. You
    saw the number in Nigeria? What will happen will be. So I think
    everything that can be done should be done.
        Again, thank you, Mr. Smith and Ms. Bass, for this hearing
    and to really kind of shine the light on it. I think it can
    make a big difference.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Wolf follows:]

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                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Mr. Wolf, thank you so very much for your
    testimony.
        Mr. Ogebe.

     STATEMENT OF MR. EMMANUEL OGEBE, SPECIAL COUNSEL, JUSTICE FOR
                              JOS PROJECT

        Mr. Ogebe. I would like to thank you very much, Chairman
    Smith, for your consistency and leadership on this issue, for
    traveling to Nigeria to further assess the situation.
        I also want to thank you, Ranking Member Bass, for the
    breakfast you held recently on this issue, keeping the issue
    alive.
        I also want to especially thank the honorable Congressman,
    retired, who has crossed over to our side of the aisle. I have
    to say that it is a great honor to have an old champion on my
    right and also a young champion on my left, Ms. Sa'a, who will
    be speaking here shortly.
        Let me start by saying that last year when I testified
    before this subcommittee last we were discussing what then was
    the big threat in Nigeria. Fortunately, we dodged a missile and
    peaceful elections and a successful transition occurred. That
    was the good news.
        Today there is a continuing sense of insecurity from three
    factors and actors, and I will start with an update on Boko
    Haram, which is the elephant in the room.
        Mr. Chairman, exactly 6 months after the administration
    announced the FTO designation of Boko Haram before this
    subcommittee, Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from a school in
    Chibok. The world took notice, but so also did al-Qaeda, who
    condemned it. And so also did ISIS, who emulated it and started
    abducting Yazidi and Christian women in Iraq. Eleven months
    after that, ISIS and Boko Haram established an alliance.
        Mr. Chairman, in June 2014 you visited Nigeria and at that
    time were informed of over 1,000 Christians stranded on Gwoza
    Mountain, facing starvation and snakebites. By July, we saw on
    the news in the U.S. helicopters dropping supplies to the
    starving Iraqis besieged on the mountaintops, but we never saw
    the same for those in Nigeria.
        Mr. Chairman, a few weeks ago I met a survivor from that
    mountain who just came down in April when Boko Haram attacked
    them there on the mountaintop. Only about 300 of them are left.
    Like the Chibok girls, these people were cut off from our
    civilization by the terrorists for 2 whole years while the
    world debated what to do. This was the situation before the
    ISIS alliance and the spread of attacks to Niger, Cameroon, and
    Chad.
        Now, global perception of Boko Haram is determined by the
    watershed date of April 14, 2014. I call it BC, before Chibok,
    and AC, after Chibok, for illustrative purposes. The worst
    attack on the United Nations are caught in Abuja in the year
    2011 BC, before Chibok, but the U.N. did not impose sanctions
    on Boko Haram until 2014 AC. So it was the Chibok abductions
    that actually forced them to impose sanctions on Boko Haram,
    not the fact that Boko Haram had bombed the United Nations
    building several years earlier. This is how significant Chibok
    is in the annals of Boko Haram.
        With that said, I want to use that as a small case study to
    show how U.S. cooperation, or lack thereof, is happening.
        Mr. Chairman, you will recall that at a hearing of this
    subcommittee in June 2014 you expressed shock that you were the
    first to interview an escaped Chibok schoolgirl 2 months after
    the abduction in spite of the reports of global partners
    searching for the girls.
        Well, 4 months after your statements, in other words 6
    months A.C., after Chibok, U.S. operatives reached out to
    interview the girls, 6 whole months later, 4 months after you
    mentioned it in the subcommittee hearing. They claim they did
    not have access to the girls in Nigeria.
        In 2015, 1 year later, again 1.6 years after Chibok,
    Nigerian operatives requested the names of the escaped Chibok
    girls in the U.S. From this experience, one is not enthused by
    the level of cooperation between the U.S. and Nigeria in
    searching for the missing girls. Rather than intelligence
    fusion, this seems to me like intelligence confusion.
        Now, the one quick update I would give with regard to what
    Boko Haram is doing is what was mentioned earlier by Ranking
    Member Bass, that these young girls are now being used as human
    bombs, not suicide bombers, and this is considerably the worst
    thing that is happening on the planet--the very notion that
    someone would abduct your daughter, strap her with bombs, and
    use her to blow up other people's daughters. Boko Haram has
    deployed over 100 girls since June 2014.
        The second threat, which I call the new elephant in the
    room, is the Fulani herdsmen who perpetrated a massacre in
    Agatu, Benue State, killing hundreds in February and March, and
    also massacred a community in Enugu State this month.
        Fulani herdsmen have accounted for over 6,000 deaths in 5
    years, equivalent to those killed by Boko Haram last year. They
    have been described as the fourth-deadliest terrorist group in
    the world. But I do not think they are terrorists in the
    traditional sense. They are historically jihadists. Their modus
    is more local jihad than global jihad, unlike Boko Haram, but
    they are more brutal and have attacked more states in Nigeria
    than Boko Haram.
        An alliance between them is suspected because in 2012 Boko
    Haram actually claimed responsibility for a herdsmen attack in
    which a Nigerian senator was skilled. This is public
    information, Boko Haram issued a statement claiming. So there
    is a strong likelihood that there is a linkage. An alliance
    between them could be most deadly because of their ability to
    operate freely across west Africa.
        Nigerians are gravely alarmed at these recent attacks,
    especially as Fulani spokesmen have claimed they have special
    protection under the incumbent President, who is also Fulani.
        In southeast Nigeria, many Igbos who have fled the north
    because of Boko Haram's targeted attacks are upset that the
    Fulani herdsmen are attacking them on their own soil,
    especially after the south conceded the Presidency to the north
    in the last election.
        The Fulani herdsmen are more medieval than Boko Haram and
    there is a pervasive sense in Nigeria that they are now a
    serious national security concern. The U.S. continues to view
    the herdsmen attacks as simply a product of climate change and
    farmer-herder competition for land, notwithstanding that people
    are killed in their homes by intruders. The U.S. Commission for
    International Religious Freedom has consistently raised an
    alarm on this for several years.
        The third threat is the Iranian-backed Shiites led by
    Sheikh al-Zakzaky and they have been a dreadful nuisance to
    communities in northwest Nigeria. But they are not terrorists.
    The reported massacre of over 300 Shiites by the Nigerian Army
    6 months ago is unfortunate as it has the potential to create
    yet another insurgent group in the country, but this time one
    with greater capacity and with full support of a known state-
    sponsor of terror. A Boko Haram alliance would be catastrophic,
    but it is intriguing that Boko Haram allied with an Iraqi group
    first before another Nigerian group.
        I should point out that Nigeria confiscated 13 container
    loads of arms sent from Iran to Nigeria. It is debatable
    whether the arms were meant for Boko Haram or for the Shiites.
        Nigeria has detained Sheikh al-Zakzaky for months. The U.S.
    has not pressed these human rights violations as strongly as it
    did the deaths of Boko Haram suspects killed during a jailbreak
    attack on a military barracks under the former President even
    though this is how Boko Haram mutated from an extremist sect to
    a terrorist group.
        I will round up with recommendations. I believe U.S. policy
    formulation on northern Nigeria should be informed by the
    terrorist, jihadi universe. As Bishop Matthew Kukah stated
    recently, the Government of America must ``take full
    responsibility for how it shapes leadership around the world,''
    arguing that policies and conflicts around the world bear
    consequences for the people of northern Nigeria. We are
    suffering the ``collateral damage,'' he lamented.
        There have been more protests in northern Nigeria against
    the U.S. and Israel than there have been against the Nigerian
    Government over the years.
        That the world today is facing a clash of civilizations is
    undebatable. Standing by Nigeria as a worthy ally to end the
    insurgency is critical to regional security. Nigeria has
    historically been a receiver, not an exporter of refugees, and
    this crisis has reduced its capacity as a regional power and a
    global player in international peacekeeping, as you referenced
    earlier.
        Secondly, this Congress has a key to address the
    humanitarian crisis before it deteriorates further by passing a
    bill to utilize assets forfeited from Nigeria in a victim
    compensation fund. Funds looted abroad by a former NSA were
    repatriated to Nigeria only to be relooted again, allegedly, by
    the last NSA.
        H.R. 528 would help victims like Habila Adamu, who
    testified before this subcommittee but remains unemployed and
    has lost family members since he survived kill shots to his
    head. The entire assault on Borno, which has been mostly
    neglected in relief efforts, could also benefit from that kind
    of fund.
        It appears that repentant terrorists appear to be getting
    more personal attention than the victims, and this in itself is
    a travesty. The U.S. Government should press Nigeria to stave
    the relentless bloodshed occasioned by the Fulani herdsmen. The
    U.N. should categorize Nigeria as a level three humanitarian
    crisis and the U.S. and this Congress should recognize Boko
    Haram's atrocities as genocide.
        I have several other recommendations which you can see on
    page 16 of my written testimony, as well as page 18 of my
    written testimony, and I ask that you kindly enter this in the
    record.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Ogebe follows:]

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                                  ----------

        Mr. Smith. Without objection, so ordered.
        And any extraneous material any of you would like will be
    made a part of the record.
        Mr. Ogebe. I thank you, sir.
        Mr. Smith. Ms. Sa'a. The floor is yours.

       STATEMENT OF ``SA'A'', CHIBOK SCHOOLGIRL, EDUCATION MUST
                          CONTINUE INITIATIVE

        Sa'a. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Two years ago the terrorist group Boko Haram attacked my
    school at Chibok when we were all sleeping at night. They were
    shooting guns and yelling ``Allahu Akbar.'' They asked, where
    are the boys? They also asked where the food is. They made us
    move from where we were staying to the class area. They started
    burning everything, our clothes, our books, our classrooms, and
    everything in our school. Then they made us walk far away from
    the school and forced us to enter a truck. If we did not they
    are going to shoot all of us.
        We were all scared so we entered the truck. When we were
    all riding through the forest, I had this feeling that I should
    try and escape because I don't know where I am going and
    neither do my parents. We didn't know. I said to one of my
    friends that I am going to jump out of the truck and escape.
    She said, ``Okay,'' she is going to jump out with me.
        I jumped out first and she jumped out after me. We hid in
    the forest while they passed. It was very dark. We didn't know
    where we are. My friend hurt both of her legs from jumping out
    of the truck. She couldn't walk. She cried. She said to me that
    I should go home and let her die in the forest. I said, ``No,
    if we are going to die, we are going to die together. I am not
    going to leave you here.''
        I decided to go and look for help. I was going not far from
    where we slept. I found a Fulani man, a shepherd. I asked him
    for help but, he said, ``No.'' So I tried and convince him.
    Then he did help us. He put my friend on his bicycle and took
    us to Chibok, and that is how we got home.
        After we escaped, Mr. Emmanuel Ogebe with the Justice for
    Jos Project, with Congressman Chairman Chris Smith, came to
    Nigeria to find out what happened. They met my friend who
    escaped with me and heard our story.
        Mr. Emmanuel Ogebe found a school for her to study in the
    U.S. She told them if they giving her a scholarship to come to
    study, she would like me to come too because I was the one who
    helped her. My friend told me about the opportunity, but I told
    her that I am not coming to school because of what happened.
        That was the second attack that both of us had been
    through. When Boko Haram kidnapped us they asked, ``Why are you
    at school?'' They said, we should all be married. They said
    that we should not go to school again or they will find us. I
    felt like if I go to school again they will kidnap us wherever
    we are.
        My brothers and friends encouraged me that I should not let
    Boko Haram stop me from getting an education, I should come and
    study. I am glad I listened to them and I'm here today. I
    started college in January under a project by the Education
    Must Continue Initiative, www.emcinitiative.org. It is run by
    the victims of the insurgency for victims of the insurgency
    which has helped me and about 3,000 other IDP kids to go to
    school.
        I have learned a lot since I came to the U.S. I went to the
    National Archives and I saw the U.S. Constitution and the
    Declaration of Independence. I even saw a version of the Magna
    Carta. I learned that the people who wrote those documents have
    faced hard times through the years, but they didn't give up,
    and hope and freedom won.
        When I heard Patrick Henry said, ``Give me liberty or give
    me death,'' I realized that was exactly how I felt when I had
    to decide about jumping out of the truck to escape from Boko
    Haram.
        Here in the U.S., I stood under the Capitol dome and looked
    up at the statute on the top called Armed Freedom and realized
    that freedom has to have strength protecting it.
        I want to study medicine. I want to help Nigeria, but will
    it be safe? I have twice escaped Boko Haram attacks on my
    schools, but many have not. Many live in fear every day. Thanks
    to God, I am safely here in the U.S. and doing well in my
    studies, but I am worried about my family in Nigeria. People
    ask me if it will be safe for me to return to Nigeria. I ask:
    Is it safe for everyone in the northern Nigeria? I lost my dad
    months ago. It wasn't the terrorism but the effects of the
    terrorism.
        I urge everyone who hears or reads this statement who has
    any power to help Nigeria to please help and also help some of
    my Chibok classmates who didn't get the opportunity that I have
    today to be in school safely. I want them to be able to go to
    school too, especially my Chibok classmates and my friend Hauwa
    John, who has been denied a visa at the American Embassy in
    Nigeria three times.
        When I saw the video of some of my missing classmates and
    recognized some of their faces, I cried with tears of joy,
    thanking God for their lives. Seeing them has given me courage
    to tell the world that we should not lose hope.
        I have had dreams. Some of the dreams were scary, but now
    my dreams are good. I have a dream of a safe Nigeria, a Nigeria
    where girls can go to school without fear of being kidnapped; a
    Nigeria where girls like me are not made into suicide bombers
    and little boys are not routinely stolen and turned into
    terrorists; a Nigeria where, if even the worst happens and
    children were stolen, every effort is made for their swift
    rescue, and those who can help will help, and those who can
    help will speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. I
    dream and pray for freedom, safety, and peace to win in
    Nigeria. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Sa'a follows:]

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                        ----------

        Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much for your powerful words
    and powerful inspiration and your powerful witness to faith,
    character, and courage. It truly astonishing. Thank you so
    much.
        Dr. Fomunyoh.

    STATEMENT OF CHRISTOPHER FOMUNYOH, PH.D., SENIOR ASSOCIATE AND
        REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR CENTRAL AND WEST AFRICA, NATIONAL
                          DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTE

        Mr. Fomunyoh. Thank you, Chairman Smith and Ranking Member
    Ms. Bass. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, on
    behalf of the National Democratic Institute, NDI, I appreciate
    this opportunity to discuss current security challenges and
    threats in northern Nigeria. This is a summary of my written
    testimony, and I request that it be made part of the record.
        Mr. Smith. Without objection, so ordered.
        Mr. Fomunyoh. Since Nigeria's 1999 transition from military
    to civilian rule, NDI has worked closely with Nigerian
    legislators, political party leaders, and civil society
    activists to support democratic institutions and practices in
    the country. With funding from the U.S. Agency for
    International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of
    State, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Ford
    Foundation, and the UK's Department for International
    Development (DFID), NDI's work has helped to support Nigerian
    efforts to advance democratic governance and electoral
    processes that reflect the will of the people.
        In May 2015, Nigeria's newly elected President, President
    Muhammadu Buhari took office following the elections that saw
    the country's first peaceful transfer of power from one
    political party to another. President Buhari and his government
    inherited several major economic and security challenges,
    particularly in the country's northern states, where
    approximately 40,000 people have been killed by violence
    between 2011 and 2015. The region has experienced political and
    economic marginalization, unbalanced development, corruption,
    and poor delivery of public services. Northeast Nigeria has
    also borne the brunt of the ongoing surge of violent extremism.
        Boko Haram, a group that promotes a fundamentalist
    religious ideology, has cost nearly 15,000 deaths since 2009.
    Moreover, more than 2.2 million Nigerians are internally
    displaced with approximately 200,000 others now refugees in
    neighboring countries.
        Also, the vast majority of approximately 5.4 million people
    that need emergency food assistance across the Lake Chad Basin
    region are Nigerian, as Boko Haram-related violence has
    divested infrastructure and disrupted economic activity. Human
    Rights Watch estimates that over 2,000 schools in northern
    Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin countries of Cameroon, Chad,
    and Niger have closed or been destroyed by the Boko Haram
    insurgency.
        In March 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic
    State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS, declaring itself the Islamic
    State's West Africa Province. Besides the Boko Haram crisis in
    the northeast, intercommunal conflicts between agrarian and
    pastoralist communities have cost 6,000 deaths since 2011,
    about 600 of which have occurred since the beginning of this
    year. A 2015 report by Mercy Corps, a U.S.-based organization,
    found that violence has contributed to negative economic growth
    and that Nigeria could gain approximately $13.7 billion a year
    in macroeconomic activity in the four most affected states
    because of the agrarian-pastoralist conflict. The communities
    most affected are northern and central Nigeria and the Middle
    Belt, stretching from Kwara and Niger States in the west to
    Adamawa State in the east. Recently, intercommunal skirmishes
    have occurred in the country's southeast zone, underscoring the
    national ramifications of simmering tensions and violence.
        In my full statement, I trace the origins and consequences
    of the conflicts and offer a series of recommendations for
    consideration by both Nigeria and the international community,
    among which they need to expedite the creation of a
    comprehensive development agency for northeast Nigeria that
    could prioritize long-term economic development, review the
    legal framework on indigenization and access to land, introduce
    stronger citizen-centered approaches to state and local
    governments, invest in further professionalization of security
    services, support rehabilitation and resiliency of impacted
    communities and individuals, promote women and youth as agents
    of peace, and enhance educational opportunities, particularly
    for girls.
        Despite its challenges, Nigeria has in the past proven its
    resilience. By using its public resources wisely and improving
    governance at the local, state, and Federal levels, the leaders
    of Africa's largest economy and most populous country can still
    deliver on the promise of democracy and the dividends that many
    Nigerians expect of their government, especially in the
    northern regions of the country. More inclusive and responsive
    governance, especially at the local level, would help sustain
    for the long-term the military gains against Boko Haram and
    ongoing efforts to tackle terrorism and skirmishes that impact
    negatively on citizens' well-being and undermine national
    cohesion.
        Since the peaceful and credible Nigerian elections of March
    2015, the international community has more forcefully expressed
    its opposition of Nigerian efforts to tackle forthrightly
    corruption, insecurity, and economic development. The
    international community should redouble its support through
    greater and more robust partnerships with Nigerians at the
    subnational levels, directly in the northern states and local
    government areas most impacted by terrorist-related and/or
    criminal violence. Direct assistance to locally based
    institutions and social citizen-led initiatives would have
    greater impact and likelihood to be sustainable over the long
    term. In addition to security and other forms of material
    assistance, the international community should prioritize human
    development expertise that can address the trauma that the
    violence of the last few years has inflicted on youth, women,
    girls, and other underprivileged segments of society in
    northern Nigeria.
        Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. Fomunyoh follows:]

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        Mr. Smith. Doctor, thank you so very much for your
    testimony and your insights and recommendations.
        We expect a series of votes at 3:45, so what I thought is
    that each of us who have questions, that we ask our questions,
    and if there is more time and if some can stay after the votes,
    we could reconvene the hearing if that would be acceptable to
    you. But I have got to be aware of your time as well.
        So I will just throw out a few couple of questions and
    yield to my good friend Ms. Bass. And take the questions you
    would like, and as best you can, please answer them.
        On the IDPs, doctor, you mentioned 2.2 million IDPs,
    200,000 refugees. Every trip I make there, every conversation
    with the administration is, are we doing enough to help them?
    When Mr. Ogebe, took us to an IDP camp--it was really a motel--
    in Jos, where we met this unbelievably tremendous man who had
    been shot by Boko Haram, would not renounce his faith in
    Christ, and then survived. He was in the IDP camp and told his
    story. And then we brought him over here for testimony. The
    question is, are we doing enough for this group of people?
        Secondly, on the military, when we kept hearing how the
    Leahy law was the obstacle, we convened a hearing of this
    subcommittee, and the administration said that at least half or
    more of all of the military in Nigeria could be properly vetted
    pursuant to the Leahy amendment and get the specialized
    training that they need. Are you agreeable? Do you believe we
    are doing enough to train vetted, non-human-rights-abusers in
    the best military tactics, as well as with the kind of weaponry
    and capabilities, like night-vision goggles, that they would
    need?
        And, finally, the special envoy idea of Mr. Wolf, you
    championed that for the Middle East, which is now up and
    running. You did it for Darfur, and that took years, as we all
    recall, but it made a difference. I am wondering, that is
    something we might look to do a bill on, or maybe we could just
    admonish the administration to create it administratively,
    which they certainly have the ability to do.
        And, Mr. Ogebe, you mentioned the Chibok schoolgirl, as did
    Sa'a, who can't get a visa. That is outrageous. We need to
    follow up on that and perhaps others who are also being
    disallowed entry into the United States.
        Ms. Bass.
        Ms. Bass. Well, first of all, thank you all for your
    testimony.
        And I agree with my colleague here: We would like to do
    everything that we can in terms of a visa for this one person
    but also any other individuals.
        And I just wonder, Sa'a, to the extent that you are in
    contact, one, how is your family doing there? Are you in
    contact with any of the other girls who escaped? And maybe you
    can answer that.
        Mr. Smith. Any other questions that you have?
        Ms. Bass. No, and I will yield to my colleague here, Ms.
    Wilson.
        Ms. Wilson. Yes, that is a good question. That is a
    question that I would like to hear the answer also.
        Also, about the people who are displaced from their homes,
    is anything being done to find housing for them? Also, I don't
    know if anyone can answer the question, maybe the chairman of
    the subcommittee, about the funds, the confiscated funds from
    Nigeria, that can be used to help some of these internally
    displaced persons. Maybe Chairman Smith would want to give us
    some insight on what we are doing moving toward that.
        Mr. Smith. I don't think we are doing enough, number one.
        Ms. Wilson. We are not doing enough.
        Mr. Smith. At previous hearings, I asked that there be
    established a victims' compensation fund.
        Ms. Wilson. Yes.
        Mr. Smith. And that could be done by the government, their
    government as well as ours working in tandem, and the prototype
    for it would be what we did for the 9/11 victims. And that
    victims' compensation fund so positively impacted many of my
    own constituents who lost loved ones and jobs, obviously,
    through 9/11. But not enough is being done.
        Ms. Wilson. Not enough. And it appears as if some genocide
    has taken place. And it seems like there is going to be a whole
    generation of children who are not being educated because the
    schools are being destroyed. There are 3,000 schools that Boko
    Haram has destroyed. And I am just concerned about, it is
    almost as if there is a fence of apartheid that has been put
    around, erected around Nigeria and the other neighboring
    countries, and it is almost as if the world is saying: Leave
    them there. It is Africans killing Africans, so why should we
    bother?
        And then when the New York Times and the Washington Post
    puts in the headline that Boko Haram is the most deadly
    terrorist organization in the world and they have killed more
    people than ISIS or any other terrorist organization, and then
    it just fades away. This is mind-boggling to me. And I wonder
    in my heart and soul what, Chairman Smith and the subcommittee,
    what should we be doing? What can we do as a country? We can't
    just pretend that it is not happening and that this fence of
    apartheid is there. It takes us back many years when we had to
    go through this with South Africa. So I am just wondering: Do
    we need to start a revolution? Do we need to march to the White
    House? Do we need to march to Nigeria? What is it do you think
    we can do, Sheila, all of us, as a Congress? Because everyone
    is concerned. It is not just us. It is so many people. And we
    realize that when we do the red Wednesdays, and when we have
    the press conference and we have the hearings, Mr. Wolf, and
    all of you should see us. So it is still the same. So that is
    why I came today and that is my question.
        Mr. Smith. Well, I will yield to my good friend and
    colleague, Mr. Donovan, in a second, but it has been my
    observation over 36 years as a Member of Congress that this is
    what we do everywhere. When the Balkans were under siege by
    Serbia, we fiddled. We said: It is not our problem; it is
    Europe's problem. They said: It is not our problem. And
    hundreds of thousands of people died.
        On the Armenians, obviously, they said that 100 years ago,
    almost to the year, during the Armenian genocide when everybody
    looked askance and they still don't recognize it in many parts
    of the world, including in the United States Government.
        I think it is gross indifference. There might be a tinge of
    racism in there. I don't know that, but it seems every
    continent has it, and we look the other way. That doesn't mean
    that we need military intervention 24/7----
        Ms. Wilson. Right.
        Mr. Smith [continuing]. But the Nigerians have a very
    capable military. Their soldiers are outstanding. I mentioned
    that in my opening that they are peacekeepers. They just need a
    special skill set that we learned over time that needs to be
    imparted to them. And we have been reluctant, citing the Leahy
    amendment, falsely, I believe, as the impediment.
        So but I think what you have done, what Karen Bass and all
    of us have tried to do is just keep it front and center.
        We had a hearing yesterday on the crackdown in Vietnam,
    which is profound. And I had the wife of a dissident that I met
    in 2005 who got arrested again and is probably being tortured.
    The President is going there. We begged the President to ask
    that Nguyen Van Dai be released and the other 180 or so
    political prisoners in Vietnam. We just need to make these
    priorities. And so I take your point and thank you for
    keeping----
        Ms. Wilson. Thank you.
        Mr. Smith [continuing]. The girls front and center 24/7.
        Mr. Donovan.
        Mr. Donovan. Thank you, Chairman.
        I just wanted to know if anyone knew an update on our
    efforts to find the remaining girls and if you could tell us
    what we are doing in those efforts.
        And, also, I am on the Committee on Homeland Security, so
    one of the things that we do when we talk about terrorist
    groups is try to measure the number of members of the group. Do
    we have any idea of the size of Boko Haram, their leadership,
    and the territories in which their strongholds are, where their
    leadership works out of?
        So those are most of my questions, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Smith. Ms. Jackson Lee.
        Ms. Jackson Lee. I am going to thank, Mr. Chairman, you and
    your ranking member for the courtesies of extending to those of
    us who have joined and have been joined at the hip on this
    issue of Boko Haram. And I think it has been 2 years that
    Congresswoman Wilson and I have been joined at the hip going
    from one ocean to the next on this issue. And I thank you so
    very much for what you are doing.
        Mr. Chairman, if I might, I have H.R. 528, which I would
    like to bring to the committee's attention, and whether we
    could have a hearing. It is Victims of Terror Protection Act,
    and it deals with the Abacha loot, which the DOJ has, and I,
    frankly, believe they can begin to utilize that money ASAP.
    Maybe a hearing would be appropriate, and I would like to share
    that with you. I think you reviewed it and supported it, and so
    I would like to do that.
        And one of my questions is going to be, how desperately
    this relief is needed to have--and I am sure with the wonderful
    witnesses that we have had from our Chibok girl, how should I
    say it, leader, champion for the other girls, I know she has
    told the story, but I would like to hear that again or hear it
    maybe for the first time, because when we were in Nigeria 2
    years ago and when I heard you being there recently, families
    were still in pain. They are still in limbo. Some are just
    surviving with their young girls missing, and maybe they have
    lost. Certainly, Boko Haram have killed--and I want to make
    this point, and maybe it was already made--Muslims, Christians,
    and others. They have killed and burned mosques and churches
    and homes and schools, and they also have recruited. So if I
    could, under this relief fund, find out how desperately it is
    in need.
        And then a second question, if I could hear about the
    recruitment. What could we do to stem the tide of recruitment
    of young boys alongside--the overall question is what we can do
    to bring the girls back, but I know there are broken families
    that are there. If we could do that.
        And then to Congressman Wolf, thank you so very much. I
    would like to join on the question of legislation dealing with
    the special envoy. We have dealt with envoys in South Sudan,
    but we have had them in other areas as well as in the Lake Chad
    area. You, Mr.--I want to still call you Mr. Chairman--Mr.
    Wolf, knew when the Africa Command was done and the
    appropriations that were done in the Africa Command may be in
    combination of a discussion that you had that I would like to
    ask about how much value you think an envoy would bring, but
    besides the Leahy amendment, just what we might do. We have an
    African Command. When I was there, they were eager. They were
    doing technical assistance. Maybe you saw them doing the same
    thing. And that was technical assistance because they were
    eager to help bring the girls back, and this was in the early
    weeks and days that Congresswoman Wilson and Congresswoman
    Frankel and I were there and Congressman Chabot, I believe, was
    there. They were eager. They were in meetings. They were
    saying: We are almost there.
        And so maybe you can help us understand that. This is not
    the Committee on Armed Services, but you can have us understand
    what that might do if we could ramp that team up beyond where
    they are today. I understand they are advising, but the growth
    around Chad, Niger, and other areas, I would be interested in
    hearing back.
        I yield back, Mr. Chairman, thank you.
        Mr. Wolf. I will be really brief. One, the IDPs are not
    getting assistance, and the camps are some of the worst camps
    that I have seen.
        Secondly, on the training of the military and police, it is
    training both there is an awareness of it but not the
    compliance, and so there needs to be in-depth. We were in
    villages. They said the military came in and fired; the police
    came in and fired. Did they capture the uniforms? I don't know.
    But awareness, but also compliance.
        Thirdly, on the special envoy, when Danforth spoke, it was
    all together. In those days, you had Kenya involved. You had
    Uganda involved. You had Eritrea briefly involved, aiding John
    Garang, and you had Ethiopia involved. One person, and it was a
    one-stop office, and Andrew Natsios, so you had a place to go.
    The President had one person to talk to. This is not meant as
    criticism of the people that are working on this. But that
    process, so to have a special envoy, one stop. Also, for
    counseling of the girls, to say we are concerned about them,
    but are you giving counseling when these people--they are
    victims twice: When they are captured and when they are
    released. Yeah, so there needs to be a one stop, and then
    everyone knows. The press knows that in one office, that one
    person speaks. So I think a special envoy, the right person,
    but again, no criticism, this is not meant to say that is
    wrong. It could really be to elevate that, could really be--
    otherwise, what are you going to do? What?
        And then you have a military person, and they can speak to
    the military. Our military are good. I believe, how did the
    helicopters come in without our people not seeing it? How did
    boats come across the river without our people not seeing it?
        So, yes, there is more, but you have to--it is not covered
    by the media the way it should. And yes, this is a very
    important issue, but more for the IDPs, more training and a
    special envoy, I think the right person could make all of the
    difference.
        And, lastly, the families, the families, we did not talk
    to. We talked to the counselors who counselled the families. I
    think she can better say. But the counselors said the families
    were hopeful. They saw all of this hashtag. Now, they are
    disappointed.
        Ms. Jackson Lee. Despair is settling in.
        Mr. Ogebe. Yes, sir. With regard to the refugees, in
    Cameroon, the camp that had 2,000 people now has 60,000 people.
    And so 500 a week have been coming in, and there are still
    people outside waiting to get in. But for my current report,
    what I learned is they now have food. When there were 2,000,
    there was no food in the camp, but now, the U.N. is able to
    provide them. We understand some of that is through U.S.
    assistance.
        Now, that said, the IDP situation in Nigeria is very bad.
    We have the whole southern border. There are not more than two
    IDP counselors in the entire half of the state. So when we had
    the start of the school for IDP kids, 2,000 kids enrolled in 1
    week. That is how bad the situation is. The kids have been
    there 4 years; no school. They trek miles just to come to that
    one school. So there is much to be done.
        Mr. Smith. Is it the money?
        Mr. Ogebe. Well, sir, we have been trying to find out why
    the southern half of that state is not being taken care of. And
    it is part of, we suspect, the religious discrimination that
    systematically occurs in that state, because that half is not
    from the right religion. So we have related this issue with the
    Government of Nigeria, and we don't know what the response will
    be.
        I thought you had a question.
        Sa'a. You asked if I am in touch with my family. I am
    always in touch with my family and some of my classmates that
    escaped too. Some of them are in school in Nigeria, while some
    of them got married. Some of them got pregnant, which I think
    because they were scared to go to school because it is not safe
    there in Nigeria. So they don't want to go to school. And so
    some of them who think like they want to go to school, they
    were in school in Nigeria, while some of them got married.
    Thank you.
        Ms. Bass. Thank you.
        Mr. Fomunyoh. Mr. Chairman, on your question on the IDPs, I
    will agree this is a very serious issue. Because of the 2.2
    million internally displaced persons, only 8 percent are in
    camps and under conditions that could use a lot of help. And so
    we have the other 92 percent of internally displaced persons
    that are spread in communities, in families, and nobody seems
    to be tracking them. And so that is the first issue with regard
    to IDPs. There is also a question of identifying who is in
    those camps and the concerns that some of the former elements
    of Boko Haram, especially now that they are on the run, could
    infiltrate the camps and use the camps as staging ground for
    other atrocities. There have been reports of people arrested in
    the refugee camp that a number of them fled to in Cameroon who
    were identified with Boko Haram.
        On the question of the military, of course, I couldn't be
    competent to talk about that, but my understanding is that
    there are currently two battalions that are being trained with
    technical assistance from the U.S. and that human rights has
    been incorporated into the curriculum. But, of course, I am
    sure other people are more qualified to discuss that issue with
    you, Mr. Chairman.
        The question about the generational handicap. That is
    really the concern that many of us have with regards to
    Nigeria, because we now are coming up to a decade since Boko
    Haram began these atrocities. And so we have a decade of young
    people who have not been able to go to school. I did mention
    the fact that 2,000 schools have been closed or destroyed in
    the course of this conflict. And so you have a whole generation
    that is coming of age that has not had basic secondary
    education. And without that, that is going to short access for
    them in terms of higher education. If you haven't had secondary
    education, you can't go to the university, which therefore
    means that they are not going to be able to have gainful
    employment. They are not going to be able to have good jobs.
    And so if you fast forward in the next 10 years, this vast
    majority of the segment of young people would be without access
    to gainful employment. And so, in some ways, you almost would
    think that, even if Boko Haram is defeated militarily, if all
    the concrete steps are not taken to provide avenues and
    opportunities for this generation of young people who have been
    starved of the possibility of gaining education, then we are
    probably just resolving one issue today and the problem will
    resurface in another 5 or 10 years.
        The last thing I would want to talk about is the idea of a
    special envoy. Before coming to the hearings, I hadn't really
    thought through the issue. But I want to draw some inspiration
    in terms of the military gains that have been made against Boko
    Haram in recent months. The fact that the multinational force
    being stood up, has helped tackle this issue with the
    involvement of other countries in the subregion. And if that
    has worked from a military perspective, I think the
    rehabilitation and reconstruction of northeastern Nigeria would
    require a multinational approach and sometimes having a one-
    stop shop and someone who can centralize all of these issues,
    because there will be people coming from Chad, from Cameroon,
    from Niger with similar issues, would facilitate the U.S.'s
    ability to be able to lend some weight in the reconstruction
    and rehabilitation of northeastern Nigeria.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you.
        We are almost out of time, but, Congressman Wolf and both
    of you, thank you for the encouragement. We will put together a
    draft bill on a special envoy and begin the process. And,
    again, the administration can do this without any bill
    whatsoever. But there might be pushback. Sometimes there is on
    something like this. So thank you for the idea. And I think it
    will help provide a focus that may be lacking to some degree,
    particularly on the humanitarian side with IDPs. And as both of
    you have said, the services and help just simply are not there.
        You know, Buhari, when he got elected, there were high
    expectations that things would change. There is a multinational
    force. There is a taking-it-to-them mentality that did not
    exist previously. And I am wondering if those expectations are
    ebbing, waning, or is there still a significant hope that Boko
    Haram can be defeated and, hopefully, God willing, the Chibok
    girls and other girls that have been abducted so cruelly,
    return to their families?
        And can I just add, because we only have--and anything else
    my distinguished colleagues might want to say--the use of the
    churches and mosques in bringing the women back, are they being
    employed in a way that is effective? Because there was a great
    deal of love in those churches and what I took away from our
    trip to Jos is how well the imam and Archbishop Kaigama worked
    together, Muslims, Catholics, other Christians working across
    those lines. It was extraordinary.
        Mr. Ogebe. Yes, sir. Well, I think my response to that is
    that we certainly need to see more humanitarian responses that
    will stave off a generational conflict because that is what we
    see brewing, as the gentleman alluded to.
        But let me just say for the record that Boko Haram has
    attacked citizens of different countries. They have killed
    citizens of over 15 countries, and they have attacked citizens
    of the U.S. as well. But to this date, the State Department has
    not admitted that Boko Haram has done so. And that is part of
    why we feel there isn't sufficient transparency and political
    will to push this issue as far as it needs to go.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you so much.
        We will act on your recommendations. They have been
    excellent and incisive.
        Ms. Jackson Lee. Just very quickly, for another time, the
    recruitment issue is very important. Mr. Chairman, I would like
    to--I am not on the subcommittee, but I would like to work with
    you on the envoy, if I may. My staff will be in touch. Thank
    you.
        Mr. Smith. Thank you. The hearing is adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 4:05 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

                                A P P E N D I X

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             Material Submitted for the Record
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       Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H.
     Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and
     chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights,
                        and International Organizations
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