The Camden Conference, in partnership with the World Affairs Council of Maine, presents a lecture titled “Terrorism in Africa: the case of Boko Haram,” by Larry Pope at the Portland Public Library on January 12 at 6pm. The lecture is free and open to all.

In April of 2014, 276 girls were abducted from their school in the town of Chibok in Northern Nigeria by a group known as Boko Haram. A global campaign was launched on social media and the hashtag #Free Our Girls was retweeted millions of times. The U.S. sent a military and intelligence team to the Nigerian capital to coordinate plans for their rescue. Sadly, almost two years later most of them remain in captivity. A new Nigerian government elected in 2015 vowed to eradicate Boko Haram by the end of the year, but the group recently occupied a Nigerian military base, kidnappings of girls continue, and one observer has described it as resurgent. What lessons can be learned from the case of Boko Haram about the fight against terrorism in the name of Islam?

Laurence Pope is a former American Ambassador to Chad, and the author of “The Demilitarization of American Diplomacy”, Palgrave MacMillan, 2014.