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Boko Haram: Journey From Evil
- Author:
- VOA News
- Publisher:
- VOA News
- Publication Date:
- 9 November 2017
Photo: VOA Boko Haram: Journey From Evil
A Voice of America
(VOA) new documentary, "Boko Harm: Journey from Evil," which revealed
the terrorists' world of torture and executions, debuted on Wednesday
night in New York.
People from all
walks of life gathered for the screening of the documentary, which held
at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York.
The feature-length
documentary from VOA delivered an unprecedented examination of Boko
Haram, the Islamic fundamentalist group that has ravaged Northeast
Nigeria.
The screening of
the hour-long documentary, sponsored by the Council and VOA, recounted
how Boko Haram established itself in Nigeria and became a violent
extremist group.
The film told the
stories of individuals caught up in the crisis and examined the road to
possible recovery, as well as the reintegration of former fighters into
the Nigerian society.
Beyond the record
of violence, the documentary also examined Boko Haram's underpinnings,
the Nigerian Government's response and inspiring stories of
extraordinary Nigerians risking their lives to return to normal.
These included
Aisha, the 'Queen Hunter' who led patrols to track and apprehend Boko
Haram fighters in the vast Sambisa Forest, rescuing scores of abducted
women and girls.
Also included was
the Bring Back Our Girls group that had raised money and awareness in
support of the hundreds of abducted Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped in
2014.
The film showed
that not all was lost in Nigeria, in spite of the country being mired in
the Boko Haram conflict and nearly a decade of suffering by the
victims.
It also espoused
that indeed, the spirit and determination of ordinary Nigerians, who
were committed to education, family, community and peace, remained very
much alive.
A discussion of the
film followed, anchored by John Campbell, former U.S. Ambassador to
Nigeria and Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies,
Council on Foreign Relations and author.
The film was based
on an 18-hour of secret Boko Haram videos obtained by VOA, according to
Mr Ibrahim Ahmed, Managing Editor, Hausa Service Mobile Stream, VOA and
Cohost, Taskar VOA.
In an interview
with NAN, Ahmed said he travelled through Borno, Yobe and Adamawa during
the height of Boko Haram attacks, never sleeping in the same place
twice after extremists condemned his reporting.
"The goal of this
film is to show the resilience of the Nigerian people after we saw what
kind of violence that Boko Haram was visiting on the people of
Northeastern Nigeria.
"We also want to
see how are people fighting back against this kind of violence. That's
why we made the effort to make this film.
"This is to show
that people are fighting Boko Haram in their own way, whether fighting
them physically or fighting them in some other ways like we saw in the
movie," he said.
Beth Mendelson, Executive Producer, VOA, told NAN the film would be used for educational purposes.
Mendelson told NAN
that: "VOA had the 18 hours of video and we felt that to tell this story
of Boko Haram in a complete and in an unfiltered way was something that
hadn't been done before.
"And then we had an opportunity to share an amazing story with the world and VOA was very supportive about doing it.
"The end goal is to
educate people and to inform people and for people to understand who
Boko Haram is, to understand the spirit of the Nigerian people.
"It is to see the resilience and to understand where the country s going and what can be done to help the country".
Campbell, while
also speaking with NAN, said the film was the best thing that he had
seen on the subject of Boko Haram and Northeastern Nigeria intended for
educated non-specialists.
"In order words,
people who are aware and educated but do not necessarily know much about
Nigeria or and about Boko Harm. I thought the film did an excellent job
of introducing that subject.
"I think it does do
that and I'm also enormously encouraged the common state is using the
film for educational purposes in the schools," said Campbell, also the
author, 'Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know'.
Notable timelines
of Boko Haram in the film included when it was founded in 2002 in Yobe
and occasional clashes before its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed in
2009.
The others were
2010 to 2015 during which it launched violent advocacy for government
overthrow making former President Goodluck Jonathan to declare a state
of emergency in the states.
The 2015-2017 when
the Nigerian military onslaught degraded the sect, President Muhammadu
Buhari's outreach to neighbouring countries.
It, however, did
not do much about the ongoing de-radicalisation programme and the state
of the released Chibok schoolgirls, which Ahmed blamed on difficulty in
accessing information said with suicide bombings, would probably form
the next project. (NAN)
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