We all think of biking as a great way to exercise, but 67-year-old Tony Fritz found another great reason to ride his bicycle: ending world hunger. Fritz began this 1,500 mile route at the Global Aid Network (GAiN) Headquarters in Plano, Texas on June 30, and he estimates his arrival at the GAiN Distribution Center, which packages and ships food for humanitarian aid, in Mount Joy, Pa. on July 30.
Some of us may question why someone would commit themselves to this daunting task. Fritz provides a very straightforward and honest answer, “Because many people living in impoverished or war-torn areas do not have enough to eat, and because many of them die needlessly, I am raising money to send food.”
The U.N. estimates that 842 million people are suffering from hunger around the world, which is why Fritz is biking to raise awareness of this global health issue. According to Fritz, “If only one child in America died of hunger or related issue it would be a travesty and reported nationally. Tragically, it does happen thousands of times daily throughout the world and morphs into an impersonal statistic.”
Along with raising awareness, this bike ride known as the “Tour De Meals” is also a pledge-per-mile fundraiser. A mere penny given for every mile Fritz bikes equals a $15 donation, which will feed a child in need for a whole month.
In order to prepare for this 1,500 mile bike route across the country, Fritz began training indoors during the winter for at least an hour five days a week, and he rode up to 80 miles a week outside during the spring.
His hobby of bicycling with his son also helped him prepare for this long journey. Fritz has been riding bikes with his son for 15 years now, and they even planned a cross-country bike ride from San Diego to Pennsylvania together about four years ago. Although Fritz was not able to complete this 2,800 mile route, he was able to bike about 55 percent of it.
A native of Reamstown, Pennsylvania, Fritz has been volunteering at GAiN as a Food Process Manager ever since retiring as a math teacher in 2006. GAiN is a humanitarian organization that works to help the world’s poor and needy through relief and development projects in the Americas, Africa, Middle East and Central Asia.
Since its launch in 2003, GAiN has created five programs: food, agriculture, clean water, education and relief. Through its Food Program, more than 13 million meals were given to children and their families across the world in 2012. This specific program is mainly responsible for packaging projects, shipping food and providing lifesaving food aid to those most in need.
Fritz is a perfect example that anyone, by any means, can make a difference in the fight against global poverty and hunger. He sums this idea up perfectly: “There are a lot of good causes out there, a lot of things to pour your life into, and this is one of them. I don’t think everybody needs to do this, but everybody needs to have awareness of it.”
To follow Fritz’s bicycling journey across the country, read his blog and even donate to the cause. Visit TourdeMeals.org.
– Meghan Orner
Sources: Global Aid Network,, Tour de Meals, Mission Network News, Greene County Daily World, UN
Photo: Auto Europe
Finding Beauty Between Poverty and Tourism
In Western countries, traveling is a privilege. Travel softens people’s psyche, allowing even the simplest of sights and gestures to hit travelers with an overwhelming sense of humility. Travel is a means of escape and rejuvenation, but sometimes it comes at the cost of the destination’s native population.
In her guest post on Kelsey Timmerman’s website, Callan Gaines attributed her experience in Guatemala to the beauty that was brought forth by the country’s poverty. She remarked how Americans lacked the villagers’ selflessness and gratitude, traits which stem from the villagers’ modest lifestyle. She was in awe at the ease with which she was moved by a smile or a hug. She reveled in community’s cozy atmosphere.
It is all too easy to romanticize poverty. However, sometimes it can inspire people to lend a hand and make a difference. Trips abroad humble and awaken visitors, especially when both travelers and host communities are respectful, creating a friendly environment.
Not all travel stories share Callan Gaines’ positive perspective, especially when that perspective comes from behind the curtain. Haiti’s Jalousie, a hillside slum in one of the capital’s districts, is going up in colors. Jalousie en Colors is a government project aiming to liven up the area by painting 1,000 houses in bright colors.
The underlying philosophy is that life will take a better turn when beauty is introduced. However, the money should not be going towards painting when there are more pressing issues facing Jalousie.
With a secondary fault line running underneath the hillside slum, Jalousie is at risk of enduring earthquakes and mudslides. In addition to these environmental hazards, residents need schools, electricity and a water supply. Instead of heeding these concerns, the Haitian government is changing Jalousie from an eye sore to a tourist backdrop. Despite claims that beautifying Jalousie is to lift the spirit of residents, only the houses facing the nearby hotels are painted.
Phase 2 of the project is underway, with an agenda to have 3,000 more houses painted and the reparation of a local soccer field. Concerns regarding the safety and infrastructure of Jalousie have been promptly dismissed.
In South America, preparation for the World Cup in Brazil has sparked distress across many of Brazil’s favelas. Residents face eviction threats as the government gathers momentum through their plans of urbanization. The government uses geological hazards as an excuse to justify their eviction intentions when the past few decades are a testament to the contrary. Residents cannot bear to leave behind the rich culture, history and diversity that has taken so long to come together, nor do they want to separate from families and neighbors.
The campaign to empty out favelas is still at full speed with the 2016 Olympics ahead. The government denies services to residents like garbage collection and lighting. There are rent increases and demolitions, and the evicted are dropped off in public housing. The gentrification of favelas crushes education, sanitation and infrastructure in order to sell an idealistic and exotic image of Brazil to the world.
Tourism is a large source of revenue. However, if poorly managed, tourism can severely damage a country. India and Nigeria are countries with failed tourism development strategies. Social injustice carves rifts between classes and weak policies can lead to irreparable destruction for the environment. The influx of foreigners and the government’s need to impress create a wave of low paying and exploitative jobs, used to keep up a welcoming illusion.
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Report on Tourism in the Developing World asserts that the host community, host government and foreign stakeholder must take responsible and respectful action in order to implement healthy tourism. Tourism should elicit positive feelings from both host and guest. The idea is that tourism promotes pride, peace, understanding and acceptance. It goes without saying that the idea needs to be a reality.
– Carmen Tu
Sources: ReliefWeb, USIP, The Guardian, Where Am I Wearing
Photo: UN
Indian Leaders Order Minor’s Revenge Rape
When a man in India was accused of assaulting a neighbor’s wife, the village leaders ordered a horrendous punishment: the rape of that man’s 14-year-old sister. The neighbor was instructed to carry out the rape, which occurred sometime after midnight on Sunday and daytime on Monday. The punishment–called revenge rape–is not uncommon in rural India.
In January, another council of village elders ordered the gang rape of a 20-year-old in West Bengal for being involved with a man from another community. She was beaten, raped and later died from injuries, as they had also raped her with a metal pole. And a year ago, a 24-year-old woman in northern India was forced to marry a man and was then gang raped as punishment for her brother’s elopement.
In most of rural India, women are still viewed as the property of their families and even their communities. Though rape outside of marriage is illegal in India, eye-for-an-eye revenge rape is still part of the tradition.
“If you want to hurt the husband, hurt the father or hurt the community, then you rape the woman to say, ‘All right, I’m soiling your goods,'” explains secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association Kavita Krishnan.
The rapist’s wife defends his actions. Her father was reportedly one of the village elders that ordered the revenge rape.
The mother of the 14-year-old victim told CNN that she had begged the council members and fellow villagers to stop the rape of her child, but no one did anything.
“We begged with folded hands but they would not listen. They dragged her away to the forest,” the mother recalled.
The young teen’s parents found their daughter bleeding an hour after the violent rape and took her to the police station. According to the police spokesperson, her clothes were smeared with blood. Later, she was admitted to the hospital because of renewed bleeding and difficulty walking.
The Indian police have arrested the rapist, his father-in-law and the attempted rapist from the week prior. However, securing a conviction and then keeping that conviction from being overturned is difficult in India. Only 1 out of 635 rape cases reported in India in 2011 have resulted in conviction. Though the Delhi attack has begun a reformation of women’s rights, the laws are not well enforced in rural India, and marital rape is still legal.
– Kimmi Ligh
Sources: NPR, Daily Mail, The Wall Street Journal 1, The Wall Street Journal 2, RYOT, NY Daily News, USA Today, National Post
Photo: NY Daily News
Report Seeks End to AIDS Epidemic
Recent statistics released in a new report by UNAIDS show that the number of new HIV/AIDS cases have been decreasing steadily. This new data shows that for every 10 percent increase in treatment coverage, there is a one percent decline in new infections among those living with HIV. However, the report also noted that far more international effort was needed because this current pace is insufficient to completely end the AIDS epidemic.
In 2013, 2.1 million new HIV/AIDS cases were recorded, down from 3.4 million new cases in 2001. 2013 also saw an additional 2.3 million people gain access to the life-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART), which is a drug that substantially suppresses many of the symptoms of AIDS and increases life spans. This means that a grand total of 13 million people have previously had or currently have access to ART. AIDS-related deaths have fallen by one-fifth in the past three years.
The most headline-grabbing piece from the report came from Michael Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, who said, “If we accelerate all HIV scale-up by 2020, we will be on track to end the epidemic by 2030.”
However it is important to know that while there has been significant improvement, considerable work still needs to be done. Sidibé went on to say that if we don’t continue to scale up efforts, then we would “[add] a decade, if not more” to the 2030 goal.
Only 15 countries account for more than 75 percent of the 2.1 million new HIV infections in 2013. In Sub-Saharan Africa the countries of Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda account for 48 percent of all new HIV infections in the region. Fewer than four in 10 people currently with HIV lack the ART necessary to survive. HIV prevalence is estimated to be 12 times higher in sex workers, 19 times higher among gay men, 28 times higher in drug injectors and up to 49 times higher among transgender women. Sub-Saharan adolescent girls and young women account for one in four new HIV infections.
While there are a tremendous amount of fascinating statistics on the matter, it’s important to not get lost in them. This new report from UNAIDS shows that progress is being made, but an even stronger effort is needed in order to end the AIDS epidemic in a timely fashion and save millions more lives.
– Andre Gobbo
Sources: BBC, UNAIDS 1, UNAIDS 2
Photo: New America Media
Kurdistan: A Beacon of Hope in Iraq
Kurdistan is an autonomous region in northern Iraq. Eleven years ago, its capital Irbil was a quaint and frightened town, scarred from years of attacks by the Iraqi government. Today, it shines as an unexpected symbol of peace, tolerance and hope in Iraq in a region torn apart by sectarian violence.
Despite the recent sudden advances of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the city of Irbil has managed to avoid falling into the pit of chaos that has overwhelmed the rest of the country. As Iraqi military forces flee and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki bombs ISIS-controlled areas, Kurdistan has opened its doors to refugees and remained comparatively immune to the turmoil.
The region exercises remarkable religious tolerance, containing a large Christian community with nuns and a church in one of Irbil’s suburbs. Kurds and Arabs intermingle in Irbil’s cafes and beer gardens. But Kurdistan did not always look this way.
Reporter Luke Harding travelled to Kurdistan in 2003 to document the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He went to visit the region again recently, and found the town of Irbil “unrecognizable.”
“Shopping malls, five-star hotels and a strange tower with a flying saucer-shaped restaurant on the top have transformed the once-low skyline. On a gleaming three-lane boulevard, workers plant purple flowers. A Jaguar and Range Rover dealership stands on the waste ground from where I made my forlorn calls home,” he observes.
He recalls his first trip in 2003, when he had to be smuggled across the Iran border in order to get into the country. Eleven years later, he flies out of Irbil on Austrian Airlines.
The region has undergone a massive transformation, which Harding attributes to oil. After the ousting of Saddam Hussein, Kurdistan was freed from years of exclusion from the oil markets. Natural resources minister of Kurdistan Ashti Hawrami has worked hard to break into the market. He has managed to make deals with large oil companies, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
“For the past 80 years, the Iraqi state has been stealing Kurdish oil,” says Hemin Hawram, head of the Kurdish Democratic Party foreign relations committee. “[Baghdad] used it to buy weapons to bomb the Kurds.”
While Kurdistan has emerged as a leader in religious tolerance and a haven for displaced Iraqis after ISIS’s recent advances, the Iraqi government has taken issue with the manner in which Kurdistan has achieved economic success. Maliki has stopped funding Kurdistan because of claims that it is illegally exporting oil and that the region is profiting off oil that should belong to the Iraqi government.
The rescindment of funding from the government has added more weight to the burden that Kurdistan already shoulders with the influx of displaced Iraqis. Antonio Guterres, head of the U.N.’s refugee agency, has stressed the region’s need for support, imploring the international community “to provide massive support for the Iraqis displaced, for the Iraqi victims of this conflict, but also to provide massive support to the government and the people in Kurdistan,” especially in the wake of the loss of funding from Baghdad.
Guterres, while visiting a displaced Iraqi camp in Kurdistan, stated he was “humbled by the generosity and the solidarity of the government and of the people in Kurdistan in this very difficult moment.”
– Julianne O’Connor
Sources: The Guardian, Mail & Guardian, The Daily Star
Photo: The Guardian
Girl Summit 2014
Co-hosted by UNICEF and the UK government, Girl Summit 2014, held on July 22 marked the first international conference dedicated to eradicating forced child marriage and forced genital mutilation.
Speakers at the Girl Summit 2014 included Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development and Theresa May, the Home Secretary.
A statistic released by the U.N. claims, according to The Telegraph, that around “125 million women and girls worldwide have been cut—and that at least 30 million more will be at risk over the next decade.” This mutilation is used as a means to make sure young girls remain “controlled and disempowered.” The consequences of this process include increased risk for illness and increased pain and mortality rates for mothers during childbirth.
Moreover, approximately one-third of female children in developing countries are married by the time they are 18. The Girl Summit Pledge website asserts that some girls who are forced into marriage “are as young as eight. Girls who marry young have babies while still children, putting them at risk of death or suffering for the rest of their lives. They are more likely to be poor and stay poor.” The ultimate goal of the Girl Summit 2014, therefore, is to more actively publicize and strengthen the worldwide community against these horrendous types of child abuse.
David Cameron, Prime Minister of the UK, declared that efforts to eradicate forced female genital mutilation and forced child marriage would be, according to The Telegraph, “at the top of Britain’s aid agenda” and he will endeavor to ensure these changes will take place “within a generation.”
The Girl Summit 2014 is also seeking to continue the movement beyond the conference through generating a large and sustained social media following. The Girl Summit is looking for people to pledge their support through their Facebook page and through twitter by using #GirlSummit.
– Jordyn Horowitz
Sources: The Telegraph, GOV.UK, Girl Summit 2014
Photo: GOV.UK
Spotlight on Team Tassy
On Saturday, July 26 in Denver and Saturday, September 6 in Pittsburgh, the third annual Great American Water Balloon Fight will take place. The profit from ticket sales go to Team Tassy, an organization passionate about ending global poverty. Team Tassy focuses on helping with the health, education, housing and jobs of those in poverty. Its ideology is that everyone can help, no matter how much or how little.
The story of Team Tassy goes back to Ian Rosenberger’s trip Haiti shortly after the 2010 earthquake. Rosenberger met a Haitian boy named Tassy. Tassy, though surviving the earthquake that stripped 300,000 people of their lives and destroyed the homes of 1.5 million, carried a tennis ball sized tumor on the side of his face.
It was ironic to have survived unlikely catastrophes and yet have a future threatened by something that can be treated. However, Rosenberger realized that the removal of the tumor would not guarantee Tassy a future either. Tassy would still face the hardships that come with an impoverished life. Rosenberger understood that to help Tassy and others like him, people must collaborate to eliminate poverty.
Virginia Montanez of the Pittsburgh Magazine conducted an interview of Rosenberger and Tassy in 2011 regarding the journey together that saved Tassy’s life. Within months, Rosenberger raised $50,000 for the surgery in Pittsburgh required to remove Tassy’s tumor. With the help of friends and donors donations poured in. Rosenberger notes that over 500 people had a hand in helping Tassy jump this hurdle.
In the interview, Rosenberger admitted that there were some worrisome periods when they were unsure of the possibility of meeting their goal and their chances of saving Tassy. However, the ultimate success of Tassy’s story proved the immeasurable power of advocacy.
Rosenberger knows that Tassy’s story is not the only one of its kind. Rosenberger kept going and started Team Tassy in order to help others in need. Rosenberger’s vision and efforts have helped Tassy kick-start a future full of possibilities. Tassy attends college in Pittsburgh and now envisions a hopeful future. He wants to eventually help others, just as others have helped him.
The water balloon fight was one of the events Rosenberger and his team organized to help fundraise for Haitians. The first water balloon fight in Pittsburgh amassed $22,000. Since then, Team Tassy has continued to host the event.
Besides the colorful sight of nearly 100,000 water balloons sailing through the air over a stadium field, participants can spend their day joining in on other activities. There’s music, yoga, carnival games and food. It’s a very festive, family oriented event. People are encouraged to indulge in some childhood fun in honor of a good cause.
– Carmen Tu
Sources: The Great American Water Balloon Fight, Pittsburgh Magazine, Team Tassy, YouTube – Ted Talks, TribLive
Photo: Team Tassy
Restricted Labor Force in India
While stories of India’s gender gap have been in the media spotlight in past years, a recent census shows the depth of the inequality. India is rated 101 out of a 136 country survey for gender disparity, with lower economic opportunities and a lower literacy rate. With a population of over a billion, nearly 160 million women are estimated to be restricted to domestic work, many of whom are of working age.
With a restricted labor force in India, the capacity for growth and development is hindered. Additionally, the options women do have are limited by unequal access to education and training. While this problem has been acknowledged, its scope was underestimated. Sociologists hope that governmental encouragement of women in the workforce can help reduce illiteracy and poverty among women.
However, even women who are employed are more likely to be “vulnerably employed” than their male counterparts. This term, used by an ILO study to describe nearly 84 percent of South Asian women, refers to the risk these workers face: seasonal employment and more easily terminated services leaves them with little job security. Additionally, these workers perform mostly domestic services, a trend which consistently reinforces the patriarchal hierarchy in India.
With job security being a problem for women, the government is hoping that opening up more opportunities in the public sector, now dominated by men, can have an equalizing effect for the women of India. With women and girls being among the most disadvantaged in the world, employing them and fostering growth in education and literacy is in the best interest for 21st century India.
For as large of a nation as it is, the hindrances on the labor force have not allowed India to realize its potential. For the generations of women now and those in the future, women must have the opportunity to come out of the domestic sphere and into the working world.
– Kristin Ronzi
Sources: Silicon India, ISP News
Photo: Worldbank
China’s Rising Economy
China’s April-to-June quarter results have proved that the country is growing economically. China’s rising economy has expanded 7.5 percent in the past year, on target with the government’s goal, and retail sales and factory output has risen even just in the month of June.
This change is positive, but was somewhat expected, as China’s government has created a plan to boost economic growth. These quarterly results simply reaffirmed that they are on the right track.
Dariusz Kowalczyk, a senior economist in Hong Kong, said regarding the results, “The Result is very good and shows the economy has recovered very well in the second quarter.” He also confirmed that the improvements were the result of the “targeted stimulus measures undertaken by the Chinese authorities.”
This boost has come after a recent decline in China’s economy due to lowered demands of exports. The economic lull inspired the government to increase consumption domestically and rebalance their growth model.
One of the changes made to boost the economy was to lower the Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR,) the cash amount required by banks to keep in reserve in order to have money to lend to agriculture related businesses and smaller companies. Smaller companies also received cuts on their taxes.
While the growth is something to celebrate, China still needs to practice caution. The growing economy may be completely dependent on the stimulus changes, and the momentum could easily fade. Chang Jian, an analysist with Barclays, stated that, “…the recovery is quite dependent on government support”.
There is also the question as to how genuine the rising economy is. The property sector, making up about 16 percent of China’s GDP, is going through a downturn. The government is working on taking out “shadow banking,” where alternative lending and finances are given outside of the government. House sales have fallen 9.2 percent. While these facts should be lending to a shrinking economy, the economy continues to grow, putting it under speculation by some.
Some believe that the numbers are inflated, and that the GDP has truly only expanded by 6 percent rather than 7.5 percent. Some economists worry that the growth will plateau, or that the government’s stimulus work will not be enough to sustain the momentum.
One thing to hope for is that the economy’s growth will continue because of these changes, even without the government continually tending to it.
Banks have been encouraged to lend more willingly to companies that export goods, which should increase exports over time.
China also plans to build railways, roads and airports along the Yangtze river, which would enable the country’s less developed areas to more easily reach Shanghai, giving economic opportunity to a larger variety of citizens.
Only time will tell if the rising economy of China is genuine and long lasting. This growth, or lack of growth, will surely affect the global economy as well.
– Courtney Prentice
Sources: BBC, Time, The Asashi Shimbun
Photo: Opinion-Maker
Tour de Meals: Biking to End Hunger
We all think of biking as a great way to exercise, but 67-year-old Tony Fritz found another great reason to ride his bicycle: ending world hunger. Fritz began this 1,500 mile route at the Global Aid Network (GAiN) Headquarters in Plano, Texas on June 30, and he estimates his arrival at the GAiN Distribution Center, which packages and ships food for humanitarian aid, in Mount Joy, Pa. on July 30.
Some of us may question why someone would commit themselves to this daunting task. Fritz provides a very straightforward and honest answer, “Because many people living in impoverished or war-torn areas do not have enough to eat, and because many of them die needlessly, I am raising money to send food.”
The U.N. estimates that 842 million people are suffering from hunger around the world, which is why Fritz is biking to raise awareness of this global health issue. According to Fritz, “If only one child in America died of hunger or related issue it would be a travesty and reported nationally. Tragically, it does happen thousands of times daily throughout the world and morphs into an impersonal statistic.”
Along with raising awareness, this bike ride known as the “Tour De Meals” is also a pledge-per-mile fundraiser. A mere penny given for every mile Fritz bikes equals a $15 donation, which will feed a child in need for a whole month.
In order to prepare for this 1,500 mile bike route across the country, Fritz began training indoors during the winter for at least an hour five days a week, and he rode up to 80 miles a week outside during the spring.
His hobby of bicycling with his son also helped him prepare for this long journey. Fritz has been riding bikes with his son for 15 years now, and they even planned a cross-country bike ride from San Diego to Pennsylvania together about four years ago. Although Fritz was not able to complete this 2,800 mile route, he was able to bike about 55 percent of it.
A native of Reamstown, Pennsylvania, Fritz has been volunteering at GAiN as a Food Process Manager ever since retiring as a math teacher in 2006. GAiN is a humanitarian organization that works to help the world’s poor and needy through relief and development projects in the Americas, Africa, Middle East and Central Asia.
Since its launch in 2003, GAiN has created five programs: food, agriculture, clean water, education and relief. Through its Food Program, more than 13 million meals were given to children and their families across the world in 2012. This specific program is mainly responsible for packaging projects, shipping food and providing lifesaving food aid to those most in need.
Fritz is a perfect example that anyone, by any means, can make a difference in the fight against global poverty and hunger. He sums this idea up perfectly: “There are a lot of good causes out there, a lot of things to pour your life into, and this is one of them. I don’t think everybody needs to do this, but everybody needs to have awareness of it.”
To follow Fritz’s bicycling journey across the country, read his blog and even donate to the cause. Visit TourdeMeals.org.
– Meghan Orner
Sources: Global Aid Network,, Tour de Meals, Mission Network News, Greene County Daily World, UN
Photo: Auto Europe
Instability Facing Nigeria
On July 24, 2014 an estimated 82 people were killed in a northern Nigerian city due to the blast of two bombs. The source of the bombs leads to the Islamist terrorist group in the area, Boko Haram.
Nigerian forces are currently at war with the terrorist group, and there is heavy speculation that the suicide bombs were a ploy to distract their attention from the war zone to a heavily populated area a few hundred miles away.
Both events seem to be targeting influential political figures in Nigeria. The first target was “Muslim cleric, Sheik Dahiru Bauchi, who has repeatedly condemned terrorism as un-Islamic,” according to the Wall Street Journal. He coincidentally missed the attack by minutes, leaving civilians as the only victims of the first bomb.
The second target was “Mohammadu Buhari, the ex-military dictator who remains the country’s top opposition leader.” With both attacks at the intended targets turning into failures, the only victims were helpless civilians who got caught in the crossfire.
This is not Boko Haram’s first attempt to create havoc in Nigerian cities, as they have bombed myriad other areas while trying to gain control of certain war-torn areas.
Nigeria’s financial stability is questionable at best, but the attacks have forced the President into pouring money the country may not have into military efforts in order to protect and police the country. It’s reported that over $1 billion have gone into the military fund as a result of these attacks.
Nigeria is acknowledging the public: “We call on Nigerian authorities to fully investigate these attacks,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement. “We urge all Nigerians to avoid reprisals and continue to practice the interfaith cooperation that violent extremists seek to undermine.”
It’s hugely important to acknowledge that the terrorist group behind these bombings are the same people that have kidnapped over 200 young girls, drawing international attention to the Nigerian political stage. The ruthlessness of their actions demonstrates the fact that little will stop them before they reach their goals of control of the nation.
Attacks on civilians are another of the many actions Boko Haram has taken to make its point clear, their brutality is unmatched in the area and the terrorists have little trouble demonstrating it at any given time.
The instability facing Nigeria is nearing its peak and it is beginning to look like there is a high chance that these attacks will manifest into a full out war within the nation, with unknown risks on the line. Nigeria has few resources to aid them, causing the strength of the country to waver in the eyes of civilians.
– Elena Lopez
Sources: Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press
Photo: Associated Press