abducting so many schoolgirls, Shekau may also have wanted to humiliate the Nigerian government just as the World Economic Forum gathered in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Shehu Sani, a human rights activist in northern Nigeria who has previously been involved in mediating with Boko Haram, believes the abduction and other recent attacks are messages to the Nigerian government that the recent arrest of Boko Haram followers in Islamic schools will be avenged. In 2012, Shekau's wife and three children were reportedly taken into military custody. Every time people have started talking about the decline of Boko Haram, it has emerged as deadlier and more fierce, Sani told CNN. This is about a strategy of violence more than about ideology. Rewarding the fighters Boko Haram has suffered several setbacks in the last year. The emergence of civilian vigilante groups in cities like Maiduguri has pushed it into rural areas and the Nigerian military has gone on the offensive against the group. According to Sani, Boko Haram now does most of its recruiting in the countryside, coercing or financially inducing vulnerable youngsters from poor homes to join its ranks. The mass kidnapping of the teenage girls from Chibok may have been part of an effort by Shekau to reinforce the loyalty of these largely uneducated young men by providing them with free servants or sex slaves, Zenn suggests. In his