Nigeria 2013-2017

[KingJaja]

I knew it would come to this, they'll probably seek the services/advice or Sri Lanka, Russia, North Korea or China - people who use the same brutal methods they are comfortable with.

The U.S. is cutting short a training program for Nigerian soldiers following a request by the West African nation’s government less than a month after Washington said it refused to sell the country Cobra attack helicopters.
“At the request of the Nigerian government, the United States will discontinue its training of a Nigerian Army battalion,” the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Abuja, said in an e-mailed statement. The program was designed to help Nigeria battle the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
The U.S. turned down the helicopter request “due to concerns about Nigeria’s ability to use and maintain this type of helicopter in its effort against Boko Haram and ongoing concerns about the Nigerian military’s protection of civilians when conducting military operations,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in Washington on Nov. 12.
Nigeria’s military, under the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan, is struggling to deal with intensifying attacks by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.The insurgents have killed more than 13,000 people since 2009, according to Jonathan. Suspected Boko Haram members carried out two attacks on cities in Nigeria’s northeast today, killing at least five people.
“We regret premature termination of this training, as it was to be the first in a larger planned project that would have trained additional units with the goal of helping the Nigerian Army build capacity to counter Boko Haram,” the embassy said.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/201...tml#disqus-tab

[Bill Moore]

Nigeria Troops Sentenced To Death For Cowardice

Fifty-four members of Nigeria's special forces have been sentenced to death for mutiny and cowardice after refusing to take part in a raid against Islamist group Boko Haram.

Nigerian troops have long complained they lack the firepower to fight Boko Haram and say they are often abandoned with little food and ammunition.

In recent weeks special forces have recaptured at least four towns with help from air raids and vigilantes.

[CrowBat]

It seems that Boko Haram have overrun Maiduguri AB, in NE Nigeria:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wavj17TQp9A

They claim '20 aircraft burned down': apparently, this includes a number of MiG-21bis (few can be seen on this video) that are out of service since the 1980s and were up for sale.

[Bill Moore]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...terrorism.html
ISIS, Boko Haram, and the Growing Role of Human Trafficking in 21st Century Terrorism

The intersection of drugs and terrorism has long been investigated. Now, the recent actions of ISIS and Boko Haram are drawing attention to the role of human trafficking.

While trafficking and smuggling does generate revenue, they are not central money-making endeavors for terrorists and are committed primarily for other reasons. Pakistani terrorists buy children to serve as suicide bombers. Rebels in Africa trade in children to fund their conflicts and obtain child soldiers. More recently, Boko Haram shocked the world by kidnapping 276 female students and threatened to traffic them. ISIS members have taken young Azidi girls, raped and sold them off for trivial prices. The girls and women may sell for as little as $25 and sometimes even less, suggesting that this is not a revenue-generating operation when a million dollars daily is gained from oil sales. Rather, human trafficking, like slavery in the past, is a way of demoralizing the conquered.

[davidbfpo]

Boko Harem have long crossed the western border into Cameroon, in recent months meeting resistance and a military response. Events there are rarely reported directly. The BBC has two reports:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30623199 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30078626

[davidbfpo]

Compared to the easy to report from centre of Paris and nearby, there has been little reporting on Boko Haram's latest "success", first attacking an army base (the occupants fled into Chad) and days later the adjacent town of Baga, the last town in the north-east held by the Nigerian state.

The significance comes from the death toll:

An Amnesty International statement said there are reports the town was razed and as many as 2,000 people killed.......The five-year insurgency killed more than 10,000 people last year alone, according to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations.

Link:http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...-baga-nigeria?

[Bill Moore]

It is amazing that this isn't getting wider coverage. More evidence that the north doesn't value life in the southern hemisphere. 200 killed over a weekend in Nigeria in ethnic violence is not abnormal, but 2,000 slaughtered is a story. I guess it isn't news if there is no market for it? BH also strapped a bomb to a little girl that recently killed 20 people in another market attack.

See no evil, hear no evil, say no evil.