Elizabeth Pearson and Jacob Zenn show how Boko Haram has adopted the tactic of abducting girls partly in response to the Nigerian security forces’ detention of members’ relatives. They point out that Boko Haram has been systematically kidnapping girls since May 2013 as part of a pattern of revenge. For Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, the kidnappings are personal; his own family has been detained by security forces in the past.

The full article is available on the Guardian website here. An excerpt is below:

“Boko Haram’s move towards using the kidnapping of women as a tactic appears to have come hand-in-hand with a similar strategy deployed by the Nigerian authorities. From December 2011, the Nigerian police began to detain the wives and children of militants leaders – possibly to put pressure on the group, possibly to bring about negotiations.

Whatever the reasons, from 2011 to 2012 more than 100 Boko Haram family members were arrested, with no evidence to suggest they had any part in Boko Haram’s crimes. Among them were relatives of Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau.

These detentions became a source of grievance for Shekau, and were repeatedly mentioned in a series of video messages in 2012. One Shekau film threatens: ‘Since you are now holding our women, just wait and see what will happen to your own women… to your own wives according to sharia law.'”