Boko Haram's raids claim multiple innocent victims and spread fear and
panic. The government says fighting the group is a priority and has
mounted a display of military force. The impact has been largely
temporary.
The Nigerian army claims progress in its fight against Boko Haram, but faces allegations of rights abuses
The images flickering across the computer screen are gruesome. The
technical quality of the video may be poor and sometimes it is difficult
to follow what is happening, but there is no doubt as to what is
unfolding before our eyes. The 45 minute video shows the torture and
subsequent murder of two policemen, who apparently fell into the hands
of the terrorist organization Boko Haram. Seen standing around with
their faces masked with scarves are the militants, who in the course of
the video kill their victims.
It is not known where the video came from, when it was recorded, or how it entered the public domain.
It does, however, show quite clearly how the group, whose name
translated into English means "Western education is sinful," is
terrorizing the people of northern Nigeria. The terror persists even
though the government has declared a state of emergency in the northeast
of the country, backing it up with a heavy military presence.
Nnamdi Obasi views Nigeria's ant-terrorism struggle with skepticism
Nnamdi Obasi, a Nigeria analyst with the International Crisis Group,
told DW the terrorists "may have been driven out of their camps and safe
havens, but they certainly haven't been defeated." He believes that
there is scant hope of peace returning in the short term, because the
group has lost none of its ideological fervor.
Traditional warfare ineffective
Fighting the Islamist militants, who want to turn Nigeria into an
Islamic state laid bare of Western influence, is the government's top
priority since its declaration of the state of emergency. But the
initial success of the military clampdown in the federal states of
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa has more or less evaporated. Security is now
somewhat better in the respective capitals of those states, but Boko
Haram continue to strike regularly and their attacks still claim many
lives. In just one incident last weekend (19/20 October 2013) the
Islamists killed 20 people in a village in Borno state.
Nnamdi Obasi said one reason why the army is failing to defeat Boko
Haram lies with the army itself. "They were trained largely in
traditional warfare," he said. The military themselves also concede that
they had never expected that terrorism would turn into such a threat.
This would confirm criticism that the group, which has probably been in
existence since 2001, was underestimated for far too long.
General Ibrahim Attahiru says cooperation with neighboring armed forces must be stepped up
"I assume that they (Boko Haram) have far more members than is generally
supposed," said Hildegard Behrendt-Kigozi, who heads a branch of a
German think tank, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, in Abuja. "I also
think that they have plenty of support in mosques and other Islamic
institutions," she told DW.
To Cameroon and back
Nigeria's armed forces would prefer to brush such criticism aside. In
recent weeks, they have been releasing regular announcements of
successful operations against the Islamists. Local media said on
Wednesday (23.10.2013) the military killed 37 Islamists in a raid in
Borno.
It is extraordinarily difficult to verify army information. The troops
evidently need the reassurance of forward-looking headlines, because
they have been under heavy pressure for some time over rights
violations. Most recently the rights group Amnesty International
criticized the Nigerian military for inhumane treatment of civilians in
detention.
Army spokesman General Ibrahim Attahiru said Boko Haram's flexibility is
one of the military's biggest problems. "The militant Islamists are
very mobile, they can scuttle off to Cameroon and then come back again.
One has to understand how these insurgents operate," he told DW.
Numerous analysts have made similar observations in recent months,
predicting that the declaration of the state of emergency wouldn't solve
the problem, but just move it around.
Hildegard Behrendt-Kigozi believes Boko Haram has more adherents than is generally assumed
Cooperation with other armed forces
General Attahiru believes that at the very least there should be more
effective communication with Nigeria's neighbors, Niger and Cameroon.
"Cooperation with other countries' armed forces is important. We can't
simply go and hunt down terrorists and mount military operations on the
other side of our border," he said.
Islamist terror cannot be defeated by the military alone and
Behrendt-Kigozi stresses the strength of Boko Haram's appeal. "Many
people feel let down by the current crop of Nigerian politicians and
business leaders. Supporters of the militant Islamists really do believe
life will improve if they come to power. There is the belief that
adherents of a strict form of Islam will feel bound by the social
obligations of their faith," she said.
This notwithstanding, the terrorists' anti-Christian propaganda and
their assaults on churches have not persuaded large sections of the
population to follow them into battle against the Christians. In
northern Nigeria, Muslims make up more than 90 percent of the population
in some areas. Many of them find the attacks on places of worship
repugnant and seek to protect their Christian neighbors.
SOURCE: DW
