Debi Johnson-Champ January 13, 2015

“I am Charlie, I am Baga.” Although few in the West probably even know what this means, the media apparently couldn’t find the time to explain what it represents.
While the eyes of the Western world were averted to the massacre in Paris, a different kind of slaughter was happening in Nigeria. By the lack of media outrage, apparently no one cared.
In the Nigerian town of Baga, bordering on Chad, the Islamic group of Boko Haram killed as many as 2,000 civilians this past weekend, most of whom were women, children and the elderly.

2000 People Slaughtered In Baga And The Media Doesn’t Care

Author: Debi Johnson-Champ January 13, 2015 9:36 pm

“I am Charlie, I am Baga.” Although few in the West probably even know what this means, the media apparently couldn’t find the time to explain what it represents.
While the eyes of the Western world were averted to the massacre in Paris, a different kind of slaughter was happening in Nigeria. By the lack of media outrage, apparently no one cared.

Via Twitter screen capture The Guardian

In the Nigerian town of Baga, bordering on Chad, the Islamic group of Boko Haram killed as many as 2,000 civilians this past weekend, most of whom were women, children and the elderly.

According to Muhammad Abba Gava, a civilian defense spokesman:

“The human carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was enormous. . . . No one could attend to the corpses and even the seriously injured ones who may have died by now.”

As those who have been following these recent attacks are aware, Boko Haram is the same Islamic extremist group that was responsible last year for the kidnapping of more than 300 school girls, an act that even drew the White House’s attention. However, almost as fast as Ann Coulter’s sick tweet fell flat, Boko Haram seemingly disappeared from the national conversation.
While social media sites turned their attention to feel good stories about animals, Boko Haram continued with its campaign of terror and killing. Some 10,000 persons were killed in the conflict with Boko Haram last year alone. Baga was simply the ‘deadliest massacre’ in its brief history according to Amnesty International.
Simon Allison, the journalist who coined the phrase “I am Charlie, but I am Baga too,” remarked:

“There are massacres and there are massacres. . . . [I]t may be the 21st century, but African lives are still deemed less newsworthy – and, by implication, less valuable – than western lives.”

The media cannot be myopic covering this bloodbath happening in Baga. It must shine a light on evil wherever it exists or wherever the victims are.
#WeAreAllBaga, #BagaTogether, #AfricanLivesMatter, #WeAllMatter, #JeSuisCharlie.

h/t The Guardian