Another prescient observation from Palmer
African nations are ex-colonial administrative units. The term "African state" doesn't mean much in practice.Unfortunately, however, it is impossible to consider Nigerian politics without reference to the countries to the east and north and west of it - the Eastern Chad basin, the Sahara, and the Western Sudan - because really the whole Sudan belt is one country with not real geographical obstacles, with homogeneous peoples having a common religion, and with few or no real racial antipathies.
Boko Haram is Kanuri, Kanuris can be found all the way from North East Nigeria to Sudan. When Boko Haram "flees the Nigerian border", they aren't really leaving one country & going to another, they are moving within the same de facto nation.
Problems like Boko Haram will continue to persist in Africa's poor Sahel regions and African states aren't structured to deal with problems like this, that's why they keep re-occurring.
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