Can The Nigerian Government Conquer Boko Haram in 2019?
On March 28, units of the Nigerian army liquidated 25 militants of the Islamist group Boko Haram in the state of Borno in northeastern Nigeria, according to army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman. He further said that the military liberated three more villages, confiscated weapons, and freed 18 people from the militants' captivity.
Less than a year later, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, spoke of significant progress in the fight against Boko Haram. Buhari relocated the military base from the capital of the city of Abuja, to the northeastern city of Maiduguri, coordinating efforts with other armed forces in the region, and using intelligence from the United States and Great Britain.
Buhari claims that Boko Haram is on the run and that his forces have managed to win a technical victory over the group. “This is still fighting force, but we are done with them," said Buhari.
Like always, it is easier said than done. Did the Nigerian Armed Forces decimate Boko Haram as the president had said? Since many Nigerians and their neighbours are still a target of terrorist attacks, as well as for hundreds of thousands of people who had to relocate as a result of the ongoing conflict in the region.
Only in the first two weeks of February 2016, more than 260 people were killed in a series of militant attacks on villages in the state of Borno, The Foreign Affairs newspaper confirmed.
What can the people of Nigeria and the whole world expect from the most brutal terrorist organization in history? And is there a threat to its penetration outside of Africa?
Boko Haram is a terrorist group spreading to northeastern Nigeria, as well as to Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon, under a leader who calls himself Abubakar Shekau.
The group is suspected of having links to al-Qaida, and in March 2015, announced its allegiance to the Islamic State. Since 2009, 20,000 people have been recruited and 2.3 million people were forced to leave their homes. It can't be an exaggeration, Boko Haram is now considered the most deadly terrorist group in the world according to the Global Terrorism Index in 2015.
The activities of the terrorist Islamist organization Boko Haram in northern Nigeria caused three million children not to attend school.
The continuing terrorist activities of the rebels of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria have led to the closure of more than 57% of schools in the state of Borno, resulting in about three million children at the beginning of the school year without education," the report said.
It is also reported that the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, Justin Forsyth, said that in addition to devastating malnutrition, violence, and outbreaks of cholera, attacks on schools can create a lost generation of children, threatening them and the future of the country.
"Despite the fact that the first task of the local people is to save children from pneumonia, diarrhea, and malnutrition, we also want the children to continue to study and return to school," Forsyth said.
“Even in the context of conflict, we need to ensure that children continue to learn. This helps them overcome their injuries,” he continued, adding that many children there were abducted and subjected to violence. “Investing in education is an important way to fight extremism,” Forsyth summed up.
He reported that about 10.5 million children do not attend school throughout Nigeria, but the rebels caused the most damage to the Borno state. About 2.3 thousand teachers have been killed in northeastern Nigeria since 2009 by Islamists. Almost 1.4 thousand schools have been destroyed.
It is noted that this year, UNICEF was able to register about 750,000 children in a school in northern Nigeria and create more than 350 temporary schools.
It's clear that the terrorist group Boko Haram is winning the war against the Nigerian authorities. The American and British media will show concern about the plight of Nigerians terrorized by Boko Haram but the governments are not interested in to fight terrorists for Nigeria, therefore, the Nigerian government must find a way to eliminate Boko Haram, else the country will never have peace.
Belgian‑Ghanaian journalist Joel Savage writes the column “A Mixture of Periodicals.” A former member of the Flemish Journalists Association, he has contributed to the Weekly Spectator, Ghanaian Times, Daily Graphic and The Mirror.
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