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Tag: Civilian JTF

  • Boko Haram kills five Borno villagers in fresh attack

    Boko Haram kills five Borno villagers in fresh attack

    Gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram have yet lunched another attack on Kwashebe village of Jere Local Government Area in the outskirts of Maidugiri.

    Five villagers were reported to have died in the attack which an eyewitness described as a brief but quick invasion.

    A security source who does not want to be mentioned told our correspondent in Maiduguri that the after shooting randomly on the villagers and setting houses ablaze with petrol bombs looted food and livestock from the village and left.

    The attack was said to have occurred at about 10.30 in the morning of Tuesday.

    The source added that; “It was the quick intervention of some Civilian JTF around the area that responded on the attack by evacuating some victims, particularly the injured ones to a nearby Police Station in Jere Local Government Area”.

    Information available indicates that, troops of the 7 Division, Nigerian Army have been mobilized to the scene to swoop on  the attackers , even as additional three dead bodies were taken to the same Jere Police Station, while other who sustained  injuries  were taken to State Specialists Hospital Maiduguri for treatment.

  • Civilian JTF commander killed in Kaduna

    Civilian JTF commander killed in Kaduna

    Commander of the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) in charge of Kakuri community, Kaduna South Local Government of Kaduna State, Buhari Ahmadu Tanko, 27, has been killed by assailants.

    Police spokesman Aliyu Usman confirmed his death.

    He said the deceased was trying to stop hoodlums from stealing on the premises of the defunct Kaduna Textile Limited.

    Usman said the incident happened yesterday about 3.26am, adding that investigations have begun.

    Efforts to speak with the family were not successful.

    But a member of the JTF vowed that the group will not be deterred in its effort to make the community safe.

    He urged the government to train and equip them instead of attempting to scrap the local vigilance groups.

    “We know the community better because we live here; the government can train us continually so we can discharge our responsibility better. What happened cannot stop us from patrolling our area, especially at night, and we will bring Tanko’s killers to justice, no matter how long it takes,” he said.

     

  • Civilian JTF, army foil another suicide attack in Borno

    Civilian JTF, army foil another suicide attack in Borno

    Another suicide attack was yesterday foiled by  troops of the  7 Division of the  Army and members of the Civilian JTF in Borno State  at Ummarati Village on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the State capital.

    Ummarari mosque was recently hit by a suicide attack killing ten worshippers.

    Army spokesman Col. Sani Usman said the suicide bomber blew off himself while he was being prevented by vigilant troops from wrecking havoc on the community.

    Usman said the suicide bomber was “intercepted by the vigilant troops and the Civilian JTF while making attempt to enter the village to detonate his dangerous cargo on innocent persons in the Ummarari.

    “The suicide bomber detonated the strapped Improvised Explosive Device (IED) vest on his body, thus killing himself instantly when he was forced to halt based on suspicion that he was carrying suicide bombing material. “Thankfully, there was no any other casualty other than the suspected suicide bomber. Troops along with the Civilian JTF at the village are now combing the surrounding area to forestall further attacks and clear the environment of likely remnants of Boko Haram terrorists hibernating.”

  • Civilian JTF, Army foil suicide attack in Borno

    Another suicide attack was on Saturday foiled by men of the civilian JTF and Troops on 7 Division Nigeria Army at Ummarati Village near on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

    Ummarari community has been recently hit by suicide attack with the last one on a mosque more claiming more than ten worshippers were killed.

    In a statement signed by the army spokesman Col. Sani Usman, the suicide bomber blew himself off while he was being prevented by some vigilant troops from wrecking havoc on the community.

    The statement read; “Troops of 7 Division Garrison Forward Operation Base (FOB), today averted yet another suicide bombing catastrophe on Ummarari community by suspected Boko Haram terrorist at about 7.00am this morning.

    “The suicide bomber was intercepted by the vigilant troops and the Civilian JTF while making attempt to enter the village to detonate his dangerous cargo on innocent persons in the Ummarari.

    “The suicide bomber detonated the strapped Improvised Explosive Device (IED) vest on his body, thus killing himself instantly when he was forced to halt based on suspicion that he was carrying suicide bombing material.

    “Thankfully, there was no any other casualty other than the suspected suicide bomber. Troops along with the Civilian JTF at the village are now combing the surrounding area to forestall further attacks and clear the environment of likely remnants of Boko Haram terrorists hibernating.”

  • Civilian JTF recruiting children, says U.S. Report

    Civilian JTF recruiting children, says U.S. Report

    United States Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday presented the 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report. The report shows that Nigeria has not achieved much in its efforts to combat human trafficking across its borders. The report, which shows that does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, indicts the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) for using children illegally to fight insurgents. It thus recommend that government must cease provision of financial and in-kind support to the CJTF until the group ceases the recruitment and use of children; investigate and prosecute all individuals suspected of recruiting and using child soldiers and perpetrating other trafficking abuses against women and children

    Natalie and Dara, eager to earn money and go to school, left Nigeria with the help of men who arranged their travel and convinced them good jobs awaited them in Cote d’Ivoire. Once there, Natalie and Dara were instead forced to have sex with men every night to pay back a $2,600 “travel debt.” After two years of being subjected to sex trafficking, Natalie and Dara contacted a UN Police officer (who was in the area to investigate other suspected cases of human trafficking) and escaped. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime helped the girls return to Nigeria, where they participated in social service programs supported by regional NGOs. Their traffickers were convicted in 2014 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and a $2,000 fine.

    Aisha was at a friend’s wedding when she was abducted by Boko Haram, along with her sister, the bride, and the bride’s sister. They were taken to a camp where her friends were forcibly married to Boko Haram fighters. Aisha, at 19 years old, had to learn how to fight; she was trained how to shoot and kill, detonate bombs, and execute attacks on villages. She was forced to participate in armed operations, including against her own village; those that refused were buried in a mass grave. Aisha saw more than 50 people killed, including her sister, before she managed to escape.

    Natalie, Dora and Aisha are just three of the victims of human trafficking captured in the 2015 Human Trafficking Report released yesterday by the State Department. As it was last year, the report shows that Nigeria is still a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking.

    It shows that Nigerian trafficking victims are recruited from rural and, to a lesser extent, urban areas: women and girls for domestic servitude and sex trafficking and boys for forced labor in street vending, domestic service, mining, stone quarrying, agriculture, textiles manufacturing, and begging. Young boys in Koranic schools, commonly known as Almajiri children, are subjected to forced begging.

    The report says Nigerian women and children are taken from Nigeria to other West and Central African countries, as well as to South Africa, where they are exploited for the same purposes. Nigerian women and girls are subjected to forced prostitution throughout Europe. Nigerian women and children are also recruited and transported to destinations in North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, where they are held captive in the sex trade or in forced labor. Nigerian gangs subject large numbers of Nigerian women to forced prostitution in the Czech Republic and Italy; EUROPOL has identified Nigerian organized crime related to trafficking in persons as one of the greatest law enforcement challenges to European governments. Nigerian women are transported to Malaysia, where they are forced into prostitution and to work as drug mules for their traffickers. West African women transit Nigeria to destinations in Europe and the Middle East, where they are subsequently subjected to forced prostitution. Children from West African countries are subjected to forced labor in Nigeria, including in Nigeria’s granite mines. Nigeria is a transit point for West African children subjected to forced labor in Cameroon and Gabon. During the reporting period, an NGO alleged Nigerian officials subjected children in internally displaced person (IDP) camps in northeast Nigeria to labor and sex trafficking. A Nigerian soldier also allegedly engaged in the forced labor of a child.

    Boko Haram, noted the report, forcefully recruited and used child soldiers as young as 12-years-old and abducted women and girls in the northern region of Nigeria, some of whom it later subjected to domestic servitude, forced labor, and sex slavery through forced marriages to its militants. An NGO also reported a civilian vigilante group, identified as the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), recruited and used child soldiers, sometimes by force. The government prohibited the recruitment and use of child soldiers and issued official statements condemning such use; however, the CJTF continued to recruit and use child soldiers during the reporting period. The Borno State government continued to provide financial and in-kind resources to the CJTF, which was also, at times, aligned with the Nigerian military in operations against Boko Haram.

    Painfully, the government of Nigeria, shows the report, does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. During the reporting period, the government sustained strong anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts by enacting amendments to the 2003 anti-trafficking law, which restrict the ability of judges to penalise offenders with fines in lieu of prison time; by investigating, prosecuting, and convicting numerous traffickers; and by providing extensive specialized anti-trafficking training to officials from various government ministries and agencies. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) identified and provided services to an increased number of victims and continued extensive awareness campaigns throughout the country. The government also created an inter-ministerial presidential taskforce to coordinate anti-trafficking activities across the government. Despite these efforts, during the reporting period, the Borno State government provided financial and in-kind resources to the CJTF, which recruited and used child soldiers.

     

    Recommendations

    for Nigeria

     

    Cease provision of financial and in-kind support to the CJTF until the group ceases the recruitment and use of children; investigate and prosecute all individuals suspected of recruiting and using child soldiers and allegedly perpetrating other trafficking abuses against women and children; continue to vigorously pursue trafficking investigations, prosecutions of trafficking offenses, and adequate sentences for convicted traffickers; take proactive measures to investigate and prosecute government officials suspected of trafficking-related corruption and complicity in trafficking offenses; ensure the activities of NAPTIP receive sufficient funding, particularly for prosecuting trafficking offenders and providing adequate care for victims; implement programs for the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of former child combatants that take into account the specific needs of child ex-combatants; continue to provide regular training to police and immigration officials to identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, such as women in prostitution and young females traveling with non-family members; fully integrate anti-trafficking responsibilities into the work of the Nigerian Police Force and the Ministry of Labor; and continue to increase the capacity of Nigerian embassies to identify and provide assistance to victims abroad, including through regular and specialized training for diplomatic and consular personnel.

     

    Prosecution

     

    The government, the report observes, maintained strong anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. In March 2015, the government passed amendments to the 2003 Trafficking in Persons Law Enforcement and Administration Act, which increase the penalties for trafficking offenders. The law prohibits all forms of trafficking. It prescribes a minimum penalty of five years’ imprisonment and a minimum fine of one million naira ($5,470) for labor trafficking offenses. The law prescribes a minimum penalty of five years’ imprisonment for sex trafficking offenses and a minimum fine of one million naira ($5,470); the minimum penalty increases to seven years’ imprisonment if the case involves a child. These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with other serious crimes, such as rape.

    NAPTIP, it said, conducted 509 trafficking investigations, completed 56 prosecutions, and secured 30 convictions during the reporting period, compared with 314 investigations, 43 prosecutions, and 42 convictions in the previous reporting period. The decrease in convictions is likely a result of a three-month strike by the judiciary. An additional 150 prosecutions remained pending at the end of the reporting period. All prosecutions occurred under the 2003 anti-trafficking law, and prison sentences upon conviction ranged from three months’ to 30 years’ imprisonment. Of the 22 convictions, 17 resulted in imprisonment without the option of paying a fine. The government also collaborated with law enforcement agencies from Finland, Niger, Norway, and the United Kingdom on investigations involving Nigerian nationals during the reporting period. The government commenced an investigation against a Nigerian soldier who allegedly engaged in the forced labour of a child; the investigation remained ongoing at the close of the reporting period. In response to an NGO’s report that Nigerian officials subjected children in IDP camps in northeast Nigeria to labor and sex trafficking, the government convened a multi-agency taskforce—including NAPTIP, security forces, and an international organisation—to investigate the allegations; ultimately, the government concluded there was no evidence of child trafficking. The government did not report any other investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in trafficking offenses; however, corruption at all levels of the government remained a pervasive problem.

    The government conducted extensive training sessions throughout the reporting period. NAPTIP, in collaboration with international partners, provided specialized training to approximately 159 government employees, including judges, prosecutors, and officials from NAPTIP, the Nigerian Police Force, the Nigerian Immigration Service, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, the National Drug and Law Enforcement Agency, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. These programs offered specialized training on victim identification, investigation of trafficking cases, and child protection. NAPTIP officials assisted Finland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and various African countries with their anti-trafficking efforts through training courses, joint intelligence sharing, and mutual legal assistance.

     

    Protection

     

    According to the report, the government increased efforts to protect trafficking victims. The government and NGOs identified 914 trafficking victims within the country, including 336 victims of sex trafficking, and 578 victims of labor trafficking, compared with 777 victims identified in the previous reporting period. NAPTIP provided initial screening and assistance for all victims it identified and referred them to government-run care facilities for further medical care, vocational training, education, and shelter. The government has formal written procedures to guide law enforcement, immigration, and social services personnel in proactive identification of trafficking victims among high-risk populations. Police, immigration, and social services personnel received specialized training on how to identify victims of trafficking and direct them to NAPTIP. Additionally, the government’s national referral mechanism provides formal guidelines for law enforcement, immigration officials, and service providers to improve protection and assistance to trafficking victims in Nigeria.

    In 2014, said the report, the government allocated approximately 2.4 billion naira ($13 million) to NAPTIP. NAPTIP spent roughly one-fifth of its operational budget, or 96.5 million naira ($528,000), on victim protection and assistance during the reporting period. State governments also contributed an additional five million naira ($27,300) to support state anti-trafficking efforts. NAPTIP operated nine shelters specifically for trafficking victims, with a total capacity of 313 victims. Through these shelters, NAPTIP provided access to legal, medical, and psychological services, as well as vocational training, trade and financial empowerment, and business management skills. Victims who required additional medical and psychological treatment were provided services by hospitals and clinics through existing agreements with NAPTIP. NAPTIP shelters offered short-term care, generally limiting victims’ stays to six weeks, though victims were allowed to extend their stays under special circumstances. If victims needed longer-term care, NAPTIP collaborated with two shelters operated by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, as well as NGO-run shelters. Victims in NAPTIP shelters were not allowed to leave unless accompanied by a chaperone. NAPTIP provided funding, in-kind donations, and services to NGOs and other organisations that afforded protective services to trafficking victims.

    The report observed that per provisions of the 2003 anti-trafficking law, Nigerian authorities ensured identified trafficking victims were not penalised for unlawful acts committed as a result of being subjected to trafficking. On rare occasions, authorities initially detained individuals involved in prostitution or other unlawful acts before they were identified as trafficking victims. Once identified, NAPTIP, the report said, worked with security services to remove victims from custody and provide them care. Officials encouraged victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases, and NAPTIP reported 36 victims served as witnesses or gave evidence during trial in the reporting period. Trafficking victims were guaranteed temporary residence visas during the pendency of any criminal, civil or other legal action. All victims were eligible to receive funds from the victims’ trust fund, which was financed primarily through confiscated assets of convicted traffickers. During the reporting period, the government disbursed 4.1 million naira ($22,400) among 17 victims for various purposes, including vocational training and school tuition, although not necessarily in equal amounts.

     

    Prevention

     

    According to the report, the government sustained efforts to prevent human trafficking. NAPTIP continued to conduct extensive national and local programming through radio and print media in all regions of the country to raise awareness about trafficking, including warning about fraudulent recruitment for jobs abroad. NAPTIP also carried out advocacy visits with community, traditional, and religious leaders, as well as government officials at both the local and national levels. The government increased coordination between NAPTIP and various relevant ministries through the establishment of an inter-ministerial presidential taskforce; this taskforce met twice during the reporting period. In October 2014, the government adopted a national policy and action plan on labor migration and instituted a licensing requirement for all private labor recruitment agencies managed by the Ministry of Labor. The government did not make any discernible efforts to decrease the demand for commercial sex acts. In January 2015, the attorney general issued an advisory notice reiterating the Nigerian government’s stance against the use of child soldiers and warning anyone found to be using child soldiers would face prosecution. The Borno State governor also warned the CJTF that the recruitment and use of child soldiers was prohibited; however, state government support for the group continued. The government, with foreign donor support, provided anti-trafficking training to Nigerian troops prior to their deployment abroad on international peacekeeping missions. The government also provided anti-trafficking training for its diplomatic personnel.

     

  • U.S. report indicts civilian JTF for recruiting children 

    U.S. report indicts civilian JTF for recruiting children 

    Nigeria has not achieved much in its efforts to combat human trafficking across its borders, according to the 2015 Global Trafficking in Persons report.

    In the report presented on Monday by the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) against insurgency in northern Nigeria was indicted of recruiting and using child-soldiers by force.

    The Nigerian government was also said not to have fully complied with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, though, significant efforts are being made.

     

    Excerpts from the report follows:

    Natalie and Dara, eager to earn money and go to school, left Nigeria with the help of men who arranged their travel and convinced them good jobs awaited them in Cote d’Ivoire. Once there, Natalie and Dara were instead forced to have sex with men every night to pay back a $2,600 “travel debt.” After two years of being subjected to sex trafficking, Natalie and Dara contacted a UN Police officer (who was in the area to investigate other suspected cases of human trafficking) and escaped. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime helped the girls return to Nigeria, where they participated in social service programs supported by regional NGOs. Their traffickers were convicted in 2014 and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and a $2,000 fine.

    Aisha was at a friend’s wedding when she was abducted by Boko Haram, along with her sister, the bride, and the bride’s sister. They were taken to a camp where her friends were forcibly married to Boko Haram fighters. Aisha, at 19 years old, had to learn how to fight; she was trained how to shoot and kill, detonate bombs, and execute attacks on villages. She was forced to participate in armed operations, including against her own village; those that refused were buried in a mass grave. Aisha saw more than 50 people killed, including her sister, before she managed to escape.

    Nigeria is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Nigerian trafficking victims are recruited from rural and, to a lesser extent, urban areas: women and girls for domestic servitude and sex trafficking and boys for forced labor in street vending, domestic service, mining, stone quarrying, agriculture, textiles manufacturing, and begging. Young boys in Koranic schools, commonly known as Almajiri children, are subjected to forced begging. Nigerian women and children are taken from Nigeria to other West and Central African countries, as well as to South Africa, where they are exploited for the same purposes. Nigerian women and girls are subjected to forced prostitution throughout Europe. Nigerian women and children are also recruited and transported to destinations in North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, where they are held captive in the sex trade or in forced labor. Nigerian gangs subject large numbers of Nigerian women to forced prostitution in the Czech Republic and Italy; EUROPOL has identified Nigerian organized crime related to trafficking in persons as one of the greatest law enforcement challenges to European governments. Nigerian women are transported to Malaysia, where they are forced into prostitution and to work as drug mules for their traffickers. West African women transit Nigeria to destinations in Europe and the Middle East, where they are subsequently subjected to forced prostitution. Children from West African countries are subjected to forced labor in Nigeria, including in Nigeria’s granite mines. Nigeria is a transit point for West African children subjected to forced labor in Cameroon and Gabon. During the reporting period, an NGO alleged Nigerian officials subjected children in internally displaced person (IDP) camps in northeast Nigeria to labor and sex trafficking. A Nigerian soldier also allegedly engaged in the forced labor of a child.

    During the reporting period, media and international observers reported the terrorist organization Boko Haram forcefully recruited and used child soldiers as young as 12-years-old and abducted women and girls in the northern region of Nigeria, some of whom it later subjected to domestic servitude, forced labor, and sex slavery through forced marriages to its militants. An NGO also reported a civilian vigilante group, identified as the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), recruited and used child soldiers, sometimes by force. The government prohibited the recruitment and use of child soldiers and issued official statements condemning such use; however, the CJTF continued to recruit and use child soldiers during the reporting period. The Borno State government continued to provide financial and in-kind resources to the CJTF, which was also, at times, aligned with the Nigerian military in operations against Boko Haram.

    The government of Nigeria does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. During the reporting period, the government sustained strong anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts by enacting amendments to the 2003 anti-trafficking law, which restrict the ability of judges to penalise offenders with fines in lieu of prison time; by investigating, prosecuting, and convicting numerous traffickers; and by providing extensive specialized anti-trafficking training to officials from various government ministries and agencies. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) identified and provided services to an increased number of victims and continued extensive awareness campaigns throughout the country. The government also created an inter-ministerial presidential taskforce to coordinate anti-trafficking activities across the government. Despite these efforts, during the reporting period, the Borno State government provided financial and in-kind resources to the CJTF, which recruited and used child soldiers.

  • 30 Boko Haram members killed in Borno

    No fewer than 30 suspected members of Boko Haram were on Thursday killed by civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) when the insurgents planned an attack on Gubio Local Government Area of Borno State..

    Our correspondent gathered that five of the civilian JTF members sustained minor injuries but no casualty was recorded on their side.

    The Nation gathered that some gunmen using Hilux and motorcycles armed with Ak47 rifles, improvised explosive devices and petrol bombs were sighted in large numbers near Kareto by some vigilant people who alerted the youths from Gubio and Kateto.
    The youths it was gathered mobilized immediately and confronted the insurgents.

    Following the attack on the insurgents, 30 of them were killed.

    Unconfirmed sources indicate that Mobbar is presently under the control of Boko Haram after Monday, 24th November, 2014 attack.

    Spokesman of Borno Elders Forum Engr. Bulama Mali Gubio who confirmed the incident to journalist in said: ” there was a huge success as 30 dreaded members of Boko Haram who attempted to overrun Kareto, Gubio and other surrounding communities were killed by our volunteered youth.

    “Already the affected areas are now calm as normal activities have since returned, but I want to call on the security authorities to intensify effort to crush the menace of terrorists that have been ravaging the socio- economic activities in Borno and other parts of the North East subregion, ” Gubio said.

  • Civilian JTF, Boko Haram and the Michika/Madagali battles

    Civilian JTF, Boko Haram and the Michika/Madagali battles

    A disturbing indication of the crisis bedeviling the Nigerian military in the ongoing war in the north-eastern part of the country is the involvement in the war of the so-called Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) assisting soldiers in combating Boko Haram insurgency. Had their involvement been limited to scouting activities, serving as guides to troops in finding their bearing in the warren that a large part of the Northeast has become, both the reputation of the military and the scouts themselves could have been left untainted. But, out of desperation and without a thought for the implications, the federal and state governments have either encouraged the CJTF to raise the tempo of their involvement in the war to include bearing and using arms or to turn a blind eye to the now armed civilians who have neither been trained in warfare and its complex and variegated doctrines nor schooled in its rules of engagement. Now, alarmingly, the CJTF recruits have tasted blood; it will be difficult henceforth to determine just how far they will go during future challenges, be it in politics or war.

    At a point last week during the battles for Michika and Madagali, border towns between Borno and Adamawa States, Boko Haram insurgents reportedly ran out of ammunition. Curiously, said the reports, soldiers neither pursued the invaders nor arrested them on any significant scale. Instead, the CJTF pursued the insurgents and slaughtered between 80 to 100 Boko Haram militants. If the insurgents ran out of ammunition, then they were most likely killed in cold blood. Did soldiers knowingly turn a blind eye? Or did they think it an inconvenience to pursue and arrest the militants, thereby conveniently leaving the reprisal killings, the crimes against humanity, the violation of the Geneva Convention squarely on the heads of the CJTF? Whatever the answers, a threshold has been reached, and notwithstanding the inordinate pressures under which Nigerian troops fight this war that threatens to embarrass them, answers must be provided and efforts made to tidy up what already looks like a messy war in the Northeast.

    What sets us apart as a country from insurgents and terrorists is our submission to and enamouredness of the rule of law in both peacetime and wartime, a virtue that was nearly undermined by uncoordinated military responses in a number of testy battlegrounds such as Baga, Borno State. The apparently undiscriminating CJTF, who do not appear to owe allegiance to any modern laws of war, and have operated openly in such big towns as Maiduguri itself, must not be allowed to carry out the kind of reprisal killings attributed to them in Madagali and Michika. The military must not give the impression they do not mind the CJTF carrying out the kind of unlawful killings international and domestic laws frown at. Either through CJTF or by any other intermediary, unlawful killings reduce us to the standards and abysmal records of terrorists and extremists.

    But the greatest fear is not just the breaching of the laws of war, or of the excesses battlefield successes against Boko Haram insurgents might lead the CJTF to perpetrate, but how to cope with the future predilections of the vigilance groups who have now tasted blood. There will definitely be consequences for security, law enforcement and stability in the near future as a large body of young men seemed certain to be unleashed on the country after the war, men and vigilance groups for whom killing has become demystified but without any restraining leash of rules and regulations of war. The kind of killings that reportedly took place in Michika and Madagali by vigilance groups early last week must never be countenanced. It was a mistake to arm the civilian scouts; it will be a more egregious mistake to turn a blind eye to their atrocities, irrespective of how Boko Haram insurgents behave or whatever successes the insurgents might achieve.

    The tragedy of war in the Northeast is daunting enough in terms of its dislocating effects, killings and economic devastation; it will be catastrophic to complicate it with untrained and armed groups unleashed into the country’s uncertain future simply because they are invaluable now. And yes, we do have a choice, even the luxury, to determine how this war should be fought, and what standards we must uphold. Our humanity, not to say civilization, demands it.

  • ‘Civilian JTF’ hunts Boko Haram members in Borno

    A group of youths in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, has taken arms against suspected Boko Haram members in the state.

    The group, which the residents call ‘Civilian JTF’, have members whose ages range between 17 and 25 years.

    They go from street to street, house to house, arresting and handing over identified Boko Haram members to operatives of the Joint Task Force (JTF).

    The “Civilian JTF” members operate freely on the streets of Maiduguri, brandishing cutlasses, iron bars and wooden batons for their operations.

    Some members of the group told reporters that they were hunting for Boko Haram members because of the hardship the crisis that arose from the sect’s activities has brought on the residents of Maiduguri and other parts of the state.

    “We are tired of this and we want to put an end to it. Since the soldiers don’t really know who the Boko Haram members are, then we who live with them and know them have no option but to help fish them out,” said a leader of the group, who simply identified himself as MK.

    He explained that the revolution began among the youths of Hausari Ward, one of the strongholds of the insurgents in the metropolis, and spread to Gwange Ward and Bolori, where the youths joined in the hunt.

    Another member of the group, who identified himself as Isa Musa, also adressed reporters on the their activities.

    He said: “We are into this to salvage our people from Boko Haram members who have killed our people, security operatives and destroyed our economy. We are not afraid of them, because we are doing a just cause and God is by our side.”

    Abubakar Malum, another leader of the group, said they did not need guns or sophisticated rifles to catch the deadly Boko Haram insurgents.

    He said: “All we want are prayers from the people and their cooperation. We are working together with the JTF soldiers. We want the government to assist us with more weapons, such as cutlasses, iron batons and axes.”