[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 4388]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE NIGERIAN GIRLS KIDNAPPING

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. DONALD M. PAYNE, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 14, 2016

  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, today marks two years since the terrorist 
group Boko Haram abducted nearly 300 Nigerian school girls from their 
school in the middle of the night. Most of those girls have not been 
seen or heard from since.
  Boko Haram has abducted, imprisoned, and violated countless women and 
girls in Nigeria and surrounding countries.
  They have displaced more than 2 million people, including 1.4 million 
children, who have seen their homes destroyed, their families brutally 
killed, their lives torn apart.
  In 2014, Boko Haram was responsible for nearly seven thousand deaths, 
making it deadlier than any other terrorist group, including ISIS.
  But amid all the horrors in the world, the media and the global 
community have largely remained silent about Boko Haram's brutalities.
  As a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, I continue 
to advocate for increased attention to Boko Haram, knowing that the 
atrocities perpetrated by Boko Haram could very well cause further 
instability throughout the region and have significant implications for 
U.S. national security.
  Earlier this year, I called for a committee hearing to explore the 
issues around Boko Haram. We have a moral responsibility to work toward 
the elimination of this terrorist group. Inaction is incompatible with 
our commitment to human rights.
  Those who choose to ignore the ongoing atrocities committed by Boko 
Haram look at Africa and see instability and strife. Those of us here 
today look and see these kidnapped girls, and we think about what would 
happen to our own children if they were taken from us.
  It is time for all of us to see these girls not as a burden of 
another nation, but as a responsibility of our own. It is time for us 
to help secure justice on their behalf and their safe return to their 
families.

                          ____________________