Amid a swelling international outcry over the kidnapping of scores of Nigerian schoolgirls by Islamist terrorists, Secretary of State John Kerry at the weekend again pledged U.S. support for efforts to locate and rescue them.
“The kidnapping of hundreds of children by Boko Haram is an unconscionable crime, and we will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and to hold the perpetrators to justice,” he said in a speech in the Ethiopian capital, Ethiopia.
“I will tell you, my friends, I have seen this scourge of terror across the planet, and so have you,” he continued. “They don’t offer anything except violence. They don’t offer a health care plan, they don’t offer schools. They don’t tell you how to build a nation, they don’t talk about how they will provide jobs. They just tell people, ‘You have to behave the way we tell you to,’ and they will punish you if you don’t.
“Our responsibility and the world’s responsibility is to stand up against that kind if nihilism,” Kerry said.