Boko Haram Raids Village, Burns Children Alive

Yeah, they’re still here.

It was a particularly brutal raid, the kind that has become rare in recent months. Dozens of homes were burned to the ground. Children were abducted and carried off into the bush. People seeking refuge under a familiar tree were blown up by a suicide bomber who had infiltrated their ranks.

The suspected perpetrator is a familiar foe to this part of northeastern Nigeria: Boko Haram, the militant Islamic group that has carried out scores of attacks across the region in recent years. On Monday, government officials raised the death toll of the weekend rampage to 65 people, with twice that number injured.

Residents of Dalori, the site of the attack, said the death toll was even higher, with as many as 100 dead. Militants descended on Dalori, a small village just outside the Borno State capital, on Saturday evening. They unleashed a torrent of gunfire, setting homes ablaze as suicide bombers attacked fleeing residents.

American conservatives have hit every presidential election year in recent memory wondering if foreign policy would play a major role in said election. Sadly, it rarely receives the attention it deserves, often because the Democrat-loving press focuses on inane social issue “Gotcha!” talking points.

ISIS has gotten some discussion in this cycle, but it is important to remember they’re just the best at currently grabbing headlines among the “fringe” and “fanatic” Islamic terror groups.

Al-Qaeda is still plenty busy spreading their twisted Islam around the globe, and the Taliban now have their biggest grip on Afghanistan since 2001.

Sadly, the savagely brutal Boko Haram group often gets pushed back in our minds because it is too difficult and/or depressing to keep up with all of the awful in the world right now. By the end of 2015, I thought the group’s ongoing violent activities had already become the most under-reported story of the year.

If ever we needed a powerful, unyielding presence in the Oval Office it is now. We certainly aren’t going to have that for the rest of this year, but there are a few adults running for the position.

Cross your fingers that one of them prevails.