Tag: boko haram

There appears to be a renewed focus on the role of neighboring African countries in the festering Boko Haram insurgency that has kept this nation on its knees for some years now. It is not that the foreign dimension to terrorism is new. It is not. The experience of countries grappling with it has always shown the cross boarder angle to the debilitating scourge.

It has not been different in the Nigerian situation despite attempts by some apologists to play down this angle to the festering problem. The military had always drawn attention to the difficulty in taming the menace because of the relative ease with which suspects flee to neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Because of the affinity in culture, language and ethnicity between these countries and zone that hosts the insurgents it has been pretty difficult to differentiate between Nigerian members of the insurgent group and foreign mercenaries.

The government has also been hesitant to accuse the leadership of some of these countries of complicity in this guerrilla warfare. But increasingly, it is dawning on us all that unless we get a good handle to this dimension of Boko Haram insurgency, the battle to stamp it out of our shores may turn out an exercise in wishful thinking.

Already, there have been attempts to chide the military for lacking the sophisticated hardware and capacity to successfully conclude the battle and save the lives of innocent citizens that are regularly slaughtered in these senseless onslaughts.

It was apparently on account of such frustrations that the Borno state governor Kashim Shettima recently took swipes on the military. His grouse borders on the relative ease with which the sect has been operating and killing innocent people in his state in the last few days. And the renewed killings have been very frequent and deadly.

But even as the debate on the capacity of the military to rise to the challenge is yet to abate, reports of the seeming complicity of Cameroon has featured very prominently. In the last couple of weeks, the media have been awash with reports linking that country either directly or indirectly with complicity in the Boko Haram debacle. In the face of this, the Comptroller-General of the Customs Service, David Paradang came up with the shocking story that our borders are perpetually open and lack effective control.

The first report had it that a leader of the sect Ibn Mohammed Abubakar wrote to President Paul Biya of Cameroon complaining against incessant attacks on its members by their forces. He was further said to have threatened to levy war on that country if its forces continue to lend support to the federal government’s military campaign. The sect leader according to a Cameroonian daily was piqued by a joint operation which the Nigerian troops and those from Cameroon conducted in a boarder town of Limani.

A few days later, there was another report that the same country was not cooperating with Nigerian troops in this battle and that has made it difficult for our troops to pursue fleeing insurgents into Cameroonian villages.

What is certain from these reports is the fact that our neighboring African countries have a key role to play if we must win this war. This fact is not in doubt. From accounts of most of the attacks that have been recorded, these onslaughts are planned and executed from outside the shores of this country.

We hear of their sophistication in weaponry. We hear of insurgents armed with such deadly weapons as armored personnel carriers, anti aircraft batteries and rocket propelled grenades. There is also the surprise dimension and the quick disappearance into the thin air immediately after these attacks. Even with the aid of fighter jets, it is still very difficult to trace the sources of these attacks.

But very regularly, the military speak of their escapades and constraints while pursuing insurgents into neighboring countries. Even as it has become obvious that our foreign neighbors provide safe heavens to these terrorists, not much has been heard from the government on efforts to partner with them to stamp out this senseless war.

The impression fast gaining ground is that the federal government is tepid in its handling of this dimension to the Boko Haram menace. This impression must not be allowed to take root. It is also very instructive that of the north-eastern states entangled in these attacks and killings, all share boarders with these African countries. Does this not instruct that concrete steps must be taken to engage them on ways out of the debacle? Is the relative ease with which insurgents attack and flee without being caught not sufficient signal that this battle cannot be won without the cooperation of Chad, Niger and Cameroon? And if we cannot secure the confidence of these countries, is it not high time we secured our boarders firmly such that cannot permit of the kind of cross boarder movements that have aided and abetted this crisis?

These are some of the issues that have been brought to the fore by the conflicting reports on the roles of these countries in the nation’s fight against terrorism.

Take the case of Cameroon which the sect purportedly threatened to levy war against if it obstructs it or cooperates with the Nigerian troops in fighting it. If this report is true, one or two inferences can be made. It is either that government had all this while shut its eyes to the atrocities of the sect for some inexplicable reasons or it had no information on their activities. It could also be a subterfuge for Cameroon to refuse doing the needful in ensuring that its grounds are not used to carry out attacks in this country. They may have even simulated that report to give the false impression that the threat has imposed restrictions on the kind of support that country could give the Nigeria government. This is more so with the current focus on the role of neighboring countries in sustaining the scourge of terrorism.

Whatever it is, the crucial role which Cameroon and other neighbors can play to decisively tame this monster is no longer in doubt. It is now certain that we must get a clear handle to this dimension for these senseless killings to be contained. That is the real issue now.

These countries cannot possibly feign ignorance of the movement and storage of the sophisticated military hardware at the disposal of the insurgents. It is also instructive from all these that the terror group means business and is very well funded. This contrasts sharply with some of the patronizing perspectives usually adduced on these shores on the root cause of the Bobo Haram insurgency.

The poor cannot afford the sophistication in armament and training which the sect has been ascribed. The poor cannot afford armored personnel carriers and the enormous logistic support that have been put into this useless battle. So Boko Haram has very strong backing both within our shores and outside of it. Those from within can be handled but not the ones outside our shores without parternering with the host countries. That is the direction to go if we must win the war against terrorism.

But our boarders must be highly secured such that it will be easy to differentiate between citizens of those counties and Nigerians in those areas. At the moment, such a difference does not exist.