Nigeria Extends Emergency Rule As Officials Look To Cameroon in Bid to Police Borders
November 8, 2013 in Nigeria
Goodluck Jonathan’s request for an extension of the state of emergency has been granted by Nigerian lawmakers.
Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan requested earlier this week that lawmakers extend a state of emergency, which was initially declared in the northeastern region in May 2013. On Thursday, that request was approved when senators unanimously backed Jonathan’s request and agreed “to extend the state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states on the same terms and conditions.” As such, the emergency rule in the three northeastern states will be extended for a further six months as of 12 November 2013.
Earlier this week, the president had requested that lawmakers extend the state of emergency, citing that the Islamist insurgency had not yet been contained. In a letter sent by the President to lawmakers in both chambers of Nigeria’s parliament, Jonathan stated that “we have achieved considerable successes in containing the activities of the terrorist elements….However, some security challenges still exist.”
In May of this year, the President enforced emergency measures in the northern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, regions of the country where he stated Boko Haram insurgents had seized territory, chased out local officials and effectively threatened Nigeria’s sovereignty. On 15 May, one day after the state of emergency was imposed, Nigeria’s military announced the launch of a massive operation aimed at permanently ending the uprising. Since then, mobile communications in the northern regions of Nigeria have been cut off, making it difficult to attain and confirm reports pertaining to ongoing attacks. In turn, while thousands of additional troops and air power have since been deployed to the region, in a bid to curb attacks, the success of the military offensive remains uncertain.
Although the military has described Boko Haram as being in a state of disarray and on the defensive, the fact that hundreds of civilians have been killed by the terrorist group in recent weeks has cast doubts on these claims. Furthermore, although the attacks appear to have partly shifted out of the major cities and into the more remote areas of the country, the number, scale and brutality of the attacks has remained unchanged. In turn, the ongoing military operations have pushed Boko Haram militants further outward and away from their main stronghold of Maiduguri. This has resulted in attacks spanning a wider region and has demonstrated the militant group’s capabilities in reorganization and resilience. This has forced officials in Nigeria to look beyond its borders, a fact that was demonstrated this week when officials requested that Cameroon aid the Nigerian military in policing the shared border. Many believe that the military operations have forced Boko Haram fightes into Nigeria’s north, towards the border with Niger and into the remote hills that border Cameroon.
While lawmakers swiftly approved Jonathan’s initial request for a state of emergency back in May, many officials believed that securing the extension would prove to be difficult. While continuing massacres around Borno and Yobe may provided political justification for an extension, a bid to extend emergency rule in the state of Adamawa was seen as being “problematic,” as the area has seen far less violence than Borno and Yobe, and locals have been growing increasingly frustrated with the situation.
Niger Officer Killed While Nigeria Carries Out Air Strikes on Boko Haram Camp
October 4, 2013 in NigeriaA high-ranking Niger security official has confirmed that armed bandits have killed a Niger soldier and seriously wounded three others in Nigeria’s volatile north-eastern region. Meanwhile officials in Nigeria have confirmed that the military carried out air strikes on a Boko Haram camp just days after the militant group’s insurgents killed forty students at a school in northern Nigeria.
In new violence that has hit Nigeria’s northern region, which is considered as the home base of Boko Haram, officials have indicated that “a soldier from Niger was killed yesterday (Wednesday) around 7:00pm (1800 GMT) and three others were wounded in an attack by eight armed bandits on Nigerian territory.” The three wounded soldiers were taken to a hospital in eastern Nigeria’s Diffa region, which is located near the border with Niger. According to reports, the soldiers were part of a West African force that is based in Baga, a town that is located in Nigeria’s Borno state. Sources have claimed that the soldiers were “ambushed by Boko Haram, 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with Niger.”
Meanwhile Nigeria’s military has launched air strikes on a Boko Haram camp, killing several Islamist militants, near a northeastern college campus where insurgents killed forty students over the past weekend. According to a military spokesman in Yobe, Lazarus Eli, the operation, which was carried out on Tuesday, involved troops tracking “…Boko Haram terrorists to their camp in the forest outside Gujba,” adding that fighters jets bombarded the camp while troops launched a ground offensive, which left several terrorists dead.” The latest military operation comes just after heavily armed Boko Haram gunmen attacked an agricultural college in Gujba on Sunday, killing forty students as they slept in their dorms. Gujba is located roughly 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Yobe’s capital city of Damaturu. The weekend school massacre cast further doubts on the success of the ongoing military campaign, which was launched in May of this year. Since June, more than one hundred people have been killed as a result of a number of school attacks that have been carried out by Boko Haram militants. Dozens of others have also been killed in violence that has occurred across the northeast, which is Boko Haram’s historic stronghold. According to an estimate made earlier this year, the four-year insurgency has cost more than 3,600 lives, however the current figure is likely much higher. Boko Haram’s insurgents have stated that they are fighting in order to create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north.
Security Forces Battle Boko Haram Militants in Southern Capital City
September 20, 2013 in AfricaSecurity forces in in Nigeria’s capital Abuja have indicated that a cell of suspected Islamist militants has opened fire on its forces. If confirmed, this would be the first time that Boko Haram has staged an attack in Abuja this year. In turn, it has cast doubts on claims that the group’s rebellion has been contained. Attacks in the northeastern region of the country have increased recently despite the massive military deployment and state of emergency in the worst-affected areas. In the latest incident to occur in the northern state of Borno, officials have stated that at least eighty-seven people have been killed by militants, who disguised themselves in military uniforms at a checkpoint outside the town of Benisheik. Officials have reported that the militants shot dead those trying to flee.
According to the State Security Service, Nigeria’s spy agency, the clash occurred at about 03:00 local time after a tip off pertaining to the location of a suspected Boko Haram weapons cache. On the ground sources have indicated that the shooting occurred at a two-storey building which is under construction in Abuja’s Apo district, which is home to a huge residential complex for Nigerian parliamentarians. Reports also indicate that the building has been used by young men where they sleep at night. According to the agency, the security team which approached the building, had been acting on information that was received from two men. A statement from the State Security Service further noted that “no sooner had the team commenced digging for the arms, than they came under heavy gunfire attack by other Boko Haram elements.” The Agency did not provide an further details pertaining to the casualties however eye witnesses have reported seeing nine bodies.
Meanwhile the attack in Benisheik took place on Tuesday however news of it has been slow to emerge as all phone lines in the region have been cut in an effort to help the ongoing military offensive. According to security sources, Boko Haram militants drove into the town in about twenty pick-up trucks. In what is one of the deadliest attacks to occur in the region since the state of emergency was declared, over the last three days, witnesses have reported health workers loading dead bodies onto trucks, with some reports indicating that the militants have killed more than 140 people. According to an officials within the state’s environmental protection agency, “apart from the dead bodies recovered today (Thursday), we collected 55 on Wednesday and the fact is that we did not go deep into the bush where I strongly believe that many people have fallen there.” There was also an attack that occurred on Wednesday night in neighboring Yobe State, which is also under a state emergency but which has not witnesses a high level of violence such as Borno state. Sources have indicated that Boko Haram militants attacked the town at about 22:30, burning the police station along with other public buildings. State police commissioner Sanusi Rufa’i has stated that “a soldier was killed in a shootout and the wive of the divisional police chief was burnt to death in her home.”
While this is attack is the first to occur in Abuja this year, Nigeria’s capital city had already suffered two major Boko Haram attacks two years ago. The first occurred when a suicide bomber rammed a car into the police headquarters in June 2011, killing eight people. Two months later, the group attacked the United Nations Headquarters, killing twenty-three people. This most recent attack however is startling as it comes at a time when the country is experiencing a military offensive in three northern states coupled with a state of emergency that has been in place since May of this year. In turn, the attack comes at a time when analysts have increasingly warned that while the military offensive may route out Boko Haram militants from the affected northern state, it may also drive them further south and into the neighboring states, therefore further exacerbating the issue.
