Is Boko Haram Really on its Knees?
Nov 20, 2016 8:43:26 GMT
Ogbeni Ogunnaike and Short_Biscuit like this
Post by omohayek on Nov 20, 2016 8:43:26 GMT
We can all see by now that Buhari is a total failure on the economic front, but just how well is he doing on one of his two signature issues - defeating Boko Haram?
Source: www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/20/nigerian-clashes-doubt-boko-haram-technically-defeated
I haven't bothered to quote the full article, which is a lot longer, but to put it simply: Buhari does not seem to be achieving any of his stated goals - not in the economic sphere, not in terms of defeating corruption, and not even when it comes to beating Boko Haram. The man does not even seem to be capable of holding his own party together, what with Tinubu and his allies looking ever more likely to bolt, while Atiku and El Rufai fight it out over who gets to run in 2019.
Boko Haram has launched a series of attacks that have inflicted substantial casualties on Nigerian government forces and contradict claims by senior officials that the extremist Islamist group is on the brink of defeat.
The group made headlines last month when it released 21 female students abducted more than two years ago. The women, taken in a night raid on a school in the small town of Chibok, were the focus of a global campaign and many analysts saw their liberation after negotiations with officials as evidence of Boko Haram’s weakness following an internal split.
On taking power 18 months ago, the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, vowed to crush Boko Haram and has since boasted that the group, which launched a violent insurgency seven years ago, was “technically defeated”.
During a visit to Nigeria in August, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, congratulated the government for reclaiming swaths of territory, while Brig Gen Mansur Dan-Ali, the defence minister, told local media last week that the government had “eradicated almost 95% of Nigeria’s security challenges within one year”.
But clashes with Nigerian security forces in recent weeks have suggested Boko Haram is more resilient than claimed and, though forced out of much of the territory it once held, is still capable of inflicting significant losses.
“There is little to indicate the group is nearing its end or even that it is severely weakened,” said William Assanvo, an expert on Nigeria and militancy at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
Boko Haram launched 12 strikes on military targets in August, 24 in September and 22 in October, according to ISS research.
In one of their boldest recent strikes, militants overran a remote military camp in the north-eastern state of Borno a month ago, leaving 13 soldiers wounded. Local press reports said another 83 soldiers were “missing”.
An army spokesman, Col Sani Kukasheka Usman, called the attack a “temporary setback” committed by “remnants of Boko Haram”.
Recent weeks have also seen further losses in Borno. Two soldiers were reported dead in a bomb attack on a remote road, while at least three more were killed in attacks on bases near the towns of Kangarwa and Kwada. Thirteen militants were reported dead in airstrikes during a four-hour firefight.
The death two weeks ago of a popular officer killed while defending a military post in Malam Fatori, a town in Borno that has changed hands repeatedly, prompted widespread grief in Nigeria and focused attention on the continuing casualties.
The group made headlines last month when it released 21 female students abducted more than two years ago. The women, taken in a night raid on a school in the small town of Chibok, were the focus of a global campaign and many analysts saw their liberation after negotiations with officials as evidence of Boko Haram’s weakness following an internal split.
On taking power 18 months ago, the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, vowed to crush Boko Haram and has since boasted that the group, which launched a violent insurgency seven years ago, was “technically defeated”.
During a visit to Nigeria in August, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, congratulated the government for reclaiming swaths of territory, while Brig Gen Mansur Dan-Ali, the defence minister, told local media last week that the government had “eradicated almost 95% of Nigeria’s security challenges within one year”.
But clashes with Nigerian security forces in recent weeks have suggested Boko Haram is more resilient than claimed and, though forced out of much of the territory it once held, is still capable of inflicting significant losses.
“There is little to indicate the group is nearing its end or even that it is severely weakened,” said William Assanvo, an expert on Nigeria and militancy at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
Boko Haram launched 12 strikes on military targets in August, 24 in September and 22 in October, according to ISS research.
In one of their boldest recent strikes, militants overran a remote military camp in the north-eastern state of Borno a month ago, leaving 13 soldiers wounded. Local press reports said another 83 soldiers were “missing”.
An army spokesman, Col Sani Kukasheka Usman, called the attack a “temporary setback” committed by “remnants of Boko Haram”.
Recent weeks have also seen further losses in Borno. Two soldiers were reported dead in a bomb attack on a remote road, while at least three more were killed in attacks on bases near the towns of Kangarwa and Kwada. Thirteen militants were reported dead in airstrikes during a four-hour firefight.
The death two weeks ago of a popular officer killed while defending a military post in Malam Fatori, a town in Borno that has changed hands repeatedly, prompted widespread grief in Nigeria and focused attention on the continuing casualties.
I haven't bothered to quote the full article, which is a lot longer, but to put it simply: Buhari does not seem to be achieving any of his stated goals - not in the economic sphere, not in terms of defeating corruption, and not even when it comes to beating Boko Haram. The man does not even seem to be capable of holding his own party together, what with Tinubu and his allies looking ever more likely to bolt, while Atiku and El Rufai fight it out over who gets to run in 2019.
