Nigeria, June 11 -- In a conversation on the now-ubiquitous insecurity involving the abduction of schoolchildren, I asked an acquaintance what she knew about the abduction of 42 pupils from Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in Mussa, Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State, by alleged Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists. She told me outright she had never heard of it. Three weeks later! Among some of the abductees were toddlers between two and four years old.

The abduction took place on the same day as the horrific kidnapping of children from the Esiele/Yawota communities in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, and the subsequent harrowing beheading of one of the abductees and a teacher in the school. The pain, grief, agony and ...