Innocent victims

 If you need to be reminded of the gruesome world we live in check our Boko Haram and the number of killings of innocent people in the fields of Nigeria. You only need to look back a few weeks.  Imagine your husband, a farmer, goes out in the  fields in the morning just like farmers do all over the world.   During the day Boko Haram militants walk through the fields and kill you all;   70 families lost the father, the husband, the son, the brother,  the breadwinner,  provider for the family  and families wept, not just one or two but 70 families, all in one day.     More killings have followed because they go on and on. 

Boko Haram is an Islamist group founded by a preacher.  They are the Northern Nigerian  branch of ISIS.   They are very active and are responsible for 1000s of murders  and kidnappings in and around Nigeria over the past 18 years.

One of my best friends at the Council was Gloria from Nigeria.  She started the same day I did and we sat together.  She left Nigeria to escape Boko Haram and to bring her daughter here for a better life.  She often talked about it.   Her father told her to do it.     She was terrified to go back for fear of her daughter being kidnapped so she dressed her in rags when they went to visit her family so  that there was no sign of any wealth which would attract the attention of Boko Haram, not that Gloria had any wealth after paying her rent and extra classes for her daughter but she said it was the only way.  You get from the airport to your destination quickly and you don't hang about.   The aim of Boko Haram is to purify Northern Nigeria and to get rid of Christians.    Gloria is a Christian and  attends church here.   She frequently asked me to accompany her to her church.   

(The bomb in the Marrakech café was another Muslim Group, Al Qaeda.  That was 2011 and I always went to that café when I visited Marrakech.     They kill people in other parts of North Africa and around the world.   They are active this week in India and Mali). 

Spare your time and your thoughts and your research,  if you need it or want it,  and your energy for these matters.   Let Covid take its seat at the back and stay indoors.