【雅思课外精读】当读书成为奢望：尼日利亚近300名学生被绑

　　【雅思课外精读】当读书成为奢望：尼日利亚近300名学生被绑   原文译文  *注：本文选自12月19日《经济学人》

　　The lost boys of Kankara走失在坎卡拉的男孩More than 300 schoolchildren are abducted in Nigeria在尼日利亚，300多孩子被绑架President Buhari has failed to contain bandits or jihadists总统布哈里对那些恶棍和圣战分子无能为力

　　1. ON DECEMBER 11TH Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, flew off to take a holiday at his country home in Daura, an ancient seat of Islamic learning in the northern state of Katsina. That night hundreds of gunmen riding on motorbikes stormed a boarding school in Kankara, also in Katsina state. Some schoolboys jumped over a fence and ran away when they heard gunshots. But more than 300 were rounded up and herded into the surrounding forest. One who later escaped told the BBC they were beaten, threatened and forced to walk through the night.

　　12月11日，尼日利亚总统穆罕默杜•布哈里飞往他位于道拉的乡间住所度假，道拉位于北部的卡齐纳州的一个古老的伊斯兰学习中心。当晚，数百名持枪分子骑着摩托车袭击了卡齐纳州坎卡拉的一所寄宿学校。一些男生听到枪声就跳过篱笆跑开了。但有300多人被困住了，他们被赶进了附近的森林中，其中一人成功逃脱，他告诉BBC，那些人殴打他们，还威胁他们，强迫他们赶夜路。

　　2. It was not immediately clear who the culprits were. Nigeria’s government says that the children were taken by bandits who have demanded a ransom for their release. But Boko Haram, a jihadist group, said it was behind the kidnapping. Both explanations are plausible.

　　目前还不清楚谁是罪魁祸首。尼日利亚政府表示，这些孩子被恶棍绑架了，他们要得到赎金才放这些孩子回来。但是圣战组织博科圣地(Boko Haram)称他们是这起绑架案的幕后黑手。两种说法似乎都有一定道理。

　　3. Criminal gangs in Nigeria have long been experts at “express kidnaps”, in which wealthy locals and foreigners are grabbed at gunpoint and held until cash is handed over or their bank accounts are emptied through ATMS. In the past few years such gangs have become less discriminating, grabbing thousands of poor folk, including travellers on buses or people living in villages (see map). In some places they have demanded levies from farmers before they allow them to harvest their crops.

　　长期以来，尼日利亚的犯罪团伙一直是“快速绑架”祸首，他们绑架当地富人和外国人，勒索现金或者利用取款机获取金钱。在过去的几年里，这些犯罪团伙已经不那么突出了，他们开始绑架穷人，包括那些大巴上的游客和村里的人们，在一些地方，他们甚至还强迫农民交了税之后才能收割庄稼。

　　4. Moreover, this is not the first mass abduction by bandits in the president’s home state. Twenty-six girls kidnapped in October in another town in Katsina were freed after a ransom was paid. They said the kidnappers raped and beat them. Even so, the latest attack would suggest a hitherto unseen level of brazenness by bandits.

　　此外，这并不是总统的家乡发生的第一起土匪大规模绑架事件。今年10月，卡齐纳镇26名女孩被绑架，交了赎金之后才被放回来。这些女孩说，那些绑匪不仅侵犯了她们，还殴打她们。即便如此，最近的袭击仍表明匪徒越来越厚颜无耻。

　　5. In 2014 Boko Haram gained the world’s attention by kidnapping nearly 300 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in the north-eastern state of Borno, which is at the heart of Nigeria’s jihadist insurgency. In 2018 it snatched more than 100 girls from a boarding school in Dapchi, in neighbouring Yobe state, a move that intelligence officials said demonstrated its ability to mount sophisticated raids over long distances.

　　2014年，博科圣地组织在尼日利亚东北部博尔诺州奇博克镇绑架了近300名女学生，引起了全世界的关注。奇博克是尼日利亚圣战分子叛乱的中心。2018年，该组织从邻近的约贝州达普奇(Dapchi)的一所寄宿学校绑架了100多名女孩，情报官员表示，此举证明了该组织有能力进行组织严密的远程突袭。

　　6. The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, offered no proof that his group was behind the kidnapping when he claimed responsibility on December 15th. (After earlier mass kidnappings Boko Haram provided photos or videos of the victims.) Some security experts therefore wondered if this was just a publicity stunt.

　　12月15日, 博科圣地领导人阿布巴卡尔·谢考称他们实施了这起绑架，但没有提供相应的证据证明博科圣地确实是幕后主使。(在早些时候的大规模绑架之后，博科圣地提供了受害者的照片和视频。)因此，一些安全专家怀疑这是否只是一个宣传噱头。

　　7. If the jihadists carried out the latest outrage, it would mark a big extension of the group’s reach and a deterioration of security across northern Nigeria, because Kankara is more than 700km by road from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, where Boko Haram emerged. It is also just a few hours’ drive from Mr Buhari’s home in Daura. Yet days after the attack the president had not seen fit to interrupt his holiday and make the short journey to the school, where parents of the kidnapped boys have been camped, anxiously waiting for news.

　　如果确实是圣战分子实施了最近的绑架，这表明圣战分子的势力范围大幅扩大，整个尼日利亚的安全状况也将恶化, 因为坎卡拉距离博科圣地出现的博尔诺州首府迈杜古有700多公里的公路距离。这里距离布哈里在道乌拉的家也只有几个小时的车程。总统不想中断他的假期，袭击发生几天后，他去了学校，那些孩子被绑架了的父母在那里焦急地等待消息。