In the last month Boko Haram
violence in the north has left nearly 300 dead. More worrisome is that
some of these attacks involved over a hundred armed men using what
appeared to be military tactics and more discipline than the terrorists
have demonstrated before. There has been some training going on, and a
lot of recruiting. The army has responded by being more violent to local
civilians.
The war against Islamic terrorists (Boko Haram) in the north
is not going well. The problem is with the security forces, which
operate outside the law while trying to enforce it. The army and police,
when faced with a major emergency (like the Boko Haram terror tactics)
will react by arresting and torturing lots of people (especially young
men, the most likely Boko Haram recruits), often killing them and
denying what had been done. While Westerners act horrified at such
behavior, that sort of thing did not largely disappear from the West
until the last century or two. When a Nigerian joins the police or army
they tend to accept the “traditional” way of doing things. But there are
good reasons why many such traditions have been replaced.
Indiscriminate torture and murder is not the most efficient way to deal
with an outbreak of Islamic terrorism. Many senior government officials
understand this, but getting the security forces to change these deadly
customs has been very difficult (as have efforts to root out corruption
in the army and police.) Meanwhile the security forces are murdering
several hundred civilians a month with these brutal and indiscriminate
tactics.
Another problem with the Islamic terrorism is that it is
largely confined to the Moslem north, where the economy and education
levels are not as advanced as in the Christian south. The combination of
ethnic and religious differences, in addition to the southerners having
been in contact with the West longer, has left the north less educated
and less able to deal with modern technological society. Thus the appeal
of Boko Haram (whose name means, literally, “Western education is
unholy”) for many of the tribes in the north.
There are over 200 tribes in Nigerian, which adds another
level of complexity for any government. While most of the tribes belong
to half a dozen ethnically related coalitions, all consider themselves
culturally different. Thus some tribes are very eager for Western
education, economic progress and honest government. Other tribes swing
in the opposite direction. Local politicians succeed in part by getting
to know how each tribe in their area operates and making the most of
that knowledge. Boko Haram is exploiting the Islamic conservatism (or
fanaticism) of many northern tribes, as well as xenophobia (fear of
outsiders) that is common in the north.
While Islamic terrorists are difficult to find, oil thieves
and their collaborators are easier to spot. The oil theft does not just
take place in the Niger Delta (where the oil fields are) but throughout
the country. There are other pipelines that carry refined product
(especially diesel), and these are being plundered. The refined product
is more profitable as you can sell it locally. This is risky as you have
to drive around in tanker trucks, always one unexpected encounter with
the police away from prison or worse. Sometimes the cops will take a
bribe and sometimes they will kill you and steal your stolen oil.
May 7, 2013: In the northeastern town of Bama some 200 Boko
Haram gunmen attacked the police station and a nearby prison. Some one
hundred prisoners were released, most of them Boko Haram men. Over a
hundred people died, about 40 of them police, soldiers and prison staff.
In central Nigeria (Nasarawa state) a tribal militia ambushed a
police convoy that was seeking to arrest members of the militia that
had been forcing locals to join them. At least twenty policemen were
killed.
May 5, 2013: In the north (Adamawa state) Boko Haram was
believed behind an attack on a Christian village, which left six dead in
a local market and four dead in a nearby church.
May 3, 2013: In central Nigeria (Taraba state) at least thirty
people died when fighting broke out between Christians and Moslems. The
trigger was the funeral procession that went through a Moslem
neighborhood and some of the young men saw this as a provocation and
attacked the Christian mourners. The violence escalated until enough
police could show up to calm things down.
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