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Comment by Dewie | Hacker News Reader

Feb. 25. 2014: Federal Government College attack: Fury at military over Yobe deaths. At least 29 teenage boys dead at Federal Government College Buni Yadi.

Boko Haram doesn't only target education for girls. Though that is how the media seem to want to present it.

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The media didn't give a shit when they were burning boys alive.

Stop kidding yourself, because neither did you.

How could I? I didn't know.

I don't think the media initially cared much about the kidnapping of the girls either. They were wrong-footed by the news spreading on twitter.

I agree that the much lesser coverage of the deaths of the boys is not really OK though.

A kidnapping is a crime in progress, so we'd expect it to remain in the news until it is over. A murder is a short term event, and so is only in the news for a short time unless something newsworthy happens in the investigation.

Boko Haram's activities can be seen as an ongoing mission in suppressing education. These killings and kidnappings aren't isolated incidents, so in a sense, the murders weren't short term events.

The kidnappings haven't been presented as an isolated event, either; it's been emphasized that Boko Haram, a known and active terrorist group with a "track record", is behind it, and that we must stop groups like this from doing the awful things that it is doing.

Well, "Boko Haram" translates to "western education is sinful". So yeah, they're trying to suppress western (non-islamic) education.

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