Nigerian Civil War Megathread

[jimmy olsen]

Nigeria is the most populous state in Africa, so I think it is appropriate that we have a thread that addresses the spiraling violence.

Click to watch a video of this interview
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/nigerian-government-crack-boko-haram/

JUDY WOODRUFF: Their name means Western Education is Sin, and in the past week, they have sown terror across Nigeria.

The radical Islamic group Boko Haram planted a bomb at a bus station in the capital city of Abuja on April 14, killing at least 70 people. That same day, it's believed that they kidnapped more than 200 girls from a school in northern Nigeria, taking them deep into a forest. The students' fate and condition are unknown.

A short time ago I spoke via Skype to freelance reporter Heather Murdock, who is covering the story for "The Christian Science Monitor." She was in Lagos, Nigeria.

And a warning: Some of the images shown during the interview may be disturbing.

Heather Murdock, thank you for talking with us.

First of all, what is the latest on the whereabouts of these schoolgirls?

HEATHER MURDOCK, The Christian Science Monitor: Well, yesterday, the governor of Borno state visited the town where the girls were abducted from, and a lot more information came to light.

They have discovered in the final tally that it was actually 234 girls kidnapped, as opposed to the 129 they originally said. And also, they are now saying that 190 of those girls are still missing. And none of them have been freed.

The ones that have escaped, 43 of them, have escaped on their own either while they were taken or in the days that followed.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So it's taken a week to figure out how many girls were kidnapped. What about the parents, the police in the area? What have they been doing?

HEATHER MURDOCK: Well, the parents say the police and soldiers have been in the bush searching for them. Vigilante groups have formed. Some vigilante groups have formed prior to this.

They're searching the bush. They apparently also have hunters and farmers searching the Bush. But this forest, Sambisa forest, is so large and so dangerous, that they say they just haven't found them yet. There have also been rumors of some girls being spotted collecting water. But the local people had told the vigilante groups that heard these rumors that if they went to try to find those girls in the area, they probably would be killed.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Why — has Boko Haram said they have done this and have they said why they have taken the schoolgirls?

HEATHER MURDOCK: No.

Last week, Abubakar Shekau, the guy who says he's the leader of Boko Haram, put out a video taking credit for the bombing in Abuja on the same day the girls were taken. They said nothing about taking the girls. Some people still believe it was Boko Haram that did this, because Boko Haram is a factious group.

And not a lot is known about its structure. It's possible that the part of Boko Haram that is ruled by Abubakar Shekau, who now says he's actually in the capital of Abuja, did in fact do this bombing in the capital, and another group of people that call themselves Boko Haram that may or may not be directly connected stole the girls.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Why isn't the government of Nigeria able to get them under some kind of control and go after them?

HEATHER MURDOCK: This is the question everyone in Nigeria is asking. They have had three states under emergency rule for three years now — I'm sorry — for one year now, and the violence just keeps getting worse.

This year, I have heard that more than 1,500 people were killed in the first three months of this year alone. And the government says they are throwing in all of the resources that they possibly can, and they still can't slow down this group.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And how well-armed is this group, Boko Haram, supposed to be?

HEATHER MURDOCK: My understanding is that they are increasingly well-armed with heavy artillery, trucks, tons of guns, hand grenades, bombs. They have put out videos recently showing militants on trucks in the — dozens of militants in each truck with machine guns mounted on the trucks attacking a military base.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, finally, Heather, we know that Nigeria is hosting a World Economic Forum in Abuja, the capital city, in the next few weeks.

There must be concern about security — or is there concern about security, given what Boko Haram is able to do?

HEATHER MURDOCK: Yes, I think that the World Economic Forum for Africa is on the top of the minds of security officials in Abuja because there's going to be more than 1,000 people coming here, and a lot of heads of state.

And we just had an attack right there. But, officially, they say that they are ready and that they have secured the town, that they will beef up security even more. They haven't given a lot of details about how they will do that, but the government of Nigeria has been very clear that they plan to go ahead with this — with this conference, and they don't expect any more violence. At least, that's what they say.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what does the government say about Boko Haram?

HEATHER MURDOCK: Well, I mean, it's officially a terrorist group in Nigeria, as it is the U.S.

And they say repeatedly that they plan on crushing Boko Haram within a few months. They have been a little bit more quiet recently since the violence has gotten worse. They also talk about negotiations, although there hasn't seemed — there doesn't seem to be any movement in the negotiations recently.

And they have also talked recently about trying to solve the problem with what they call a softer approach, meaning de-radicalization prisons, and education and economic reform. But we actually haven't seen any of the fruits of that effort yet.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, meanwhile, almost 200 schoolgirls still missing.

Well, Heather Murdock, we thank you for talking with us.

HEATHER MURDOCK: Thank you.

[Eddie Teach]

I assume we're rooting for the Christians.

[sbr]

Browns killing browns? 

[Queequeg]

Browns killing browns? 

Northern Nigerians aren't really brown in any real sense.  They are really, really dark. 

[jimmy olsen]

Not unexpected, but still very sad.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/boko-haram-nigerian-terror-group-sells-girls-slavery-n93951

Mothers marched Wednesday in Nigeria to protest government inaction more than two weeks after 200 school girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram, a terror group operating with near impunity in the region — and which has reportedly sold many of the girls into slavery or marriage for as little as $12.

The rally came on the same day that the U.S. State Department released its annual global terrorism report, which names Boko Haram as one of the most dangerous groups in the world — ranking next to the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda factions in Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula — and said they the group was responsible for at least 1,000 deaths in 2013.

"Boko Haram" translates to "Western Education is Sinful," so it has been attacking Nigerian schools since its founding in the early 2000s. But the April 14 attack at the Government Girls Secondary School in the Nigerian town of Chibok sent shocks around the world: More than 200 girls were taken, and weeks later it's still unclear where they are.

"There are still at least 230 girls being held," Mausi Segun, Nigeria researcher for Human Rights Watch, told NBC News from Nigeria. "Some of them have been taken across the border to Cameroon. Some of them have been taken to Chad. A few of them are still in the country, but their whereabouts [are] difficult to ascertain at this time."

The girls' identities have been withheld by the Nigerian government, which cites security concerns.

"We know little about the girls except they were in the highest class of secondary school in Nigeria," said Segun. "Most of them are between the ages of 16 and 18 years old."

According to community leaders in Nigeria, the young women are being forced to marry the Islamic extremists who kidnapped them.

The students are being sold for 2,000 naira — about $12 — to marry the fighters, Halite Aliyu of the Borno-Yobe People's Forum told The Associated Press in Lagos.

She said reports of mass weddings are coming from villagers in the Sambisa Forest, on Nigeria's border with Cameroon, where Boko Haram is known to have hideouts.

"The latest reports are that they have been taken across the borders, some to Cameroon and Chad," Aliyu said.

Pogu Bitrus, a community elder in Chibok, the town where the girls were abducted, told the BBC that some of the girls "have been married off to insurgents [in] a medieval kind of slavery."

"You go and capture women and then sell them off," he said.

Meanwhile, anger at the government over their failure to protect or rescue the girls moved hundreds of mothers and others in Lagos to march Wednesday to Nigeria's National Assembly in protest. Hundreds more also marched in Kano, Nigeria's second city in the north. "The leaders of both houses said they will do all in their power, but we are saying two weeks already have passed. We want action now," said activist Mercy Asu Abang.

"We want our girls to come home alive — not in body bags," she said.

One senator from the region said the government needs international help to rescue the girls.

The government must do "whatever it takes, even seeking external support, to make sure these girls are released," Sen. Ali Ndume said. "The longer it takes, the dimmer the chances of finding them, the longer it takes the more traumatized the family and the abducted girls are."

Tina Kaidanow, ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism for the U.S. State Department, told NBC News on Wednesday that the Obama administration continues to "work very closely with the government of Nigeria to give them as much assistance as we can and to urge them to do what they can do, both within the frame of rule of law."

That frame is important, because, as counterterrorism expert and former Bush administration official Michael Leiter pointed out, the Nigerian government has varied between inaction and overkill.

"The problem is that the government's writ of authority is really relatively narrow, and they have problems in the south in the Nigerian delta, and they have problems in the north with Islamic extremists, and they can't control all these areas," Leiter said Wednesday on NBC News' "Andrea Mitchell Reports."

"And frankly when they have, lots of their actions have been almost as ruthless as Boko Haram's," he said. "They have gone in with very little discretion, and they have killed lots of people — fueling some of the radicalization that we've seen in the north over the past five years."

— with Catherine Chomiak and the Associated Press

[Norgy]

Might mention there was a civil war in Nigeria some decades ago. Biafra and all that. Nigerian authorities have banned a movie set in that period just recently. The stuff I pick up listening to the radio. Got to love BBC World Service. 

[Tamas]

Browns killing browns? 

Northern Nigerians aren't really brown in any real sense.  They are really, really dark.

I knew this was your post without checking who posted it.

[The Brain]

Might mention there was a civil war in Nigeria some decades ago. Biafra and all that.

Swedish flying mercs ftw.

[Valmy]

I assume we're rooting for the Christians.

I just know how I am rooting against.  Fuck those Boko Haram guys.

[The Brain]

I assume we're rooting for the Christians.

I just know how I am rooting against.  Fuck those Boko Haram guys.

Too Boko?

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Not unexpected, but still very sad.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/boko-haram-nigerian-terror-group-sells-girls-slavery-n93951

Mothers marched Wednesday in Nigeria to protest government inaction more than two weeks after 200 school girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram, a terror group operating with near impunity in the region — and which has reportedly sold many of the girls into slavery or marriage for as little as $12.

The rally came on the same day that the U.S. State Department released its annual global terrorism report, which names Boko Haram as one of the most dangerous groups in the world — ranking next to the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda factions in Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula — and said they the group was responsible for at least 1,000 deaths in 2013.

"Boko Haram" translates to "Western Education is Sinful," so it has been attacking Nigerian schools since its founding in the early 2000s. But the April 14 attack at the Government Girls Secondary School in the Nigerian town of Chibok sent shocks around the world: More than 200 girls were taken, and weeks later it's still unclear where they are.

"There are still at least 230 girls being held," Mausi Segun, Nigeria researcher for Human Rights Watch, told NBC News from Nigeria. "Some of them have been taken across the border to Cameroon. Some of them have been taken to Chad. A few of them are still in the country, but their whereabouts [are] difficult to ascertain at this time."

The girls' identities have been withheld by the Nigerian government, which cites security concerns.

"We know little about the girls except they were in the highest class of secondary school in Nigeria," said Segun. "Most of them are between the ages of 16 and 18 years old."

According to community leaders in Nigeria, the young women are being forced to marry the Islamic extremists who kidnapped them.

The students are being sold for 2,000 naira — about $12 — to marry the fighters, Halite Aliyu of the Borno-Yobe People's Forum told The Associated Press in Lagos.

She said reports of mass weddings are coming from villagers in the Sambisa Forest, on Nigeria's border with Cameroon, where Boko Haram is known to have hideouts.

"The latest reports are that they have been taken across the borders, some to Cameroon and Chad," Aliyu said.

Pogu Bitrus, a community elder in Chibok, the town where the girls were abducted, told the BBC that some of the girls "have been married off to insurgents [in] a medieval kind of slavery."

"You go and capture women and then sell them off," he said.

Meanwhile, anger at the government over their failure to protect or rescue the girls moved hundreds of mothers and others in Lagos to march Wednesday to Nigeria's National Assembly in protest. Hundreds more also marched in Kano, Nigeria's second city in the north. "The leaders of both houses said they will do all in their power, but we are saying two weeks already have passed. We want action now," said activist Mercy Asu Abang.

"We want our girls to come home alive — not in body bags," she said.

One senator from the region said the government needs international help to rescue the girls.

The government must do "whatever it takes, even seeking external support, to make sure these girls are released," Sen. Ali Ndume said. "The longer it takes, the dimmer the chances of finding them, the longer it takes the more traumatized the family and the abducted girls are."

Tina Kaidanow, ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism for the U.S. State Department, told NBC News on Wednesday that the Obama administration continues to "work very closely with the government of Nigeria to give them as much assistance as we can and to urge them to do what they can do, both within the frame of rule of law."

That frame is important, because, as counterterrorism expert and former Bush administration official Michael Leiter pointed out, the Nigerian government has varied between inaction and overkill.

"The problem is that the government's writ of authority is really relatively narrow, and they have problems in the south in the Nigerian delta, and they have problems in the north with Islamic extremists, and they can't control all these areas," Leiter said Wednesday on NBC News' "Andrea Mitchell Reports."

"And frankly when they have, lots of their actions have been almost as ruthless as Boko Haram's," he said. "They have gone in with very little discretion, and they have killed lots of people — fueling some of the radicalization that we've seen in the north over the past five years."

— with Catherine Chomiak and the Associated Press

just following the prophet's example...

[derspiess]

Too Boko?

[Viking]

I assume we're rooting for the Christians.

Yes, though neither side is "The Good Guys" (tm) we are supporting the side which is not for mass kidnapping of school girls for sexual slavery and the side which is not against education.

[Legbiter]

Too Boko?

[jimmy olsen]

That escalated quickly

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/05/boko-haram-attack-kills-hundreds-nigeria-201457181134779575.html

Boko Haram attack kills hundreds in Nigeria
Officials estimate the death toll at 300 in town left unguarded during attempts to rescue missing schoolgirls.
Last updated: 08 May 2014 06:28
   
A Boko Haram attack has killed hundreds in Nigeria's northeast, multiple sources have said, as police offered $300,000 for information leading to the rescue of more than 200 schoolgirls held hostage by the armed group.

The latest attack reported on Wednesday targeted the town of Gamboru Ngala on the border with Cameroon, where gunmen earlier this week razed scores of buildings and fired on civilians as they tried to flee.

Area Senator Ahmed Zanna put the death toll at 300, in an account supported by numerous residents.

Zanna said the town had been left unguarded because soldiers based there had been redeployed north towards Lake Chad in an effort to rescue more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram on April 14.

The mass abduction has sparked global outrage and offers of help from the United States, Britain, France and China.

Nigeria's response to the kidnappings has been widely criticised, including by activists and parents of the hostages who say the military's search operation has been inept so far.

President Goodluck Jonathan's administration has sought to appear more engaged with the plight of the hostages in recent days, especially after Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau released a video threatening to sell the girls as "slaves".

In a second kidnapping, another 11 girls aged 12 to 15 were seized on Sunday from Gwoza, an area not far from Chibok and also in Borno state, Boko Haram's base.

Boko Haram's five-year uprising has killed thousands across Africa's most populous country, with many questioning whether Nigeria has the capacity to contain the violence.

Reward for arrest of armed group
Missing girls parents 'abandoned' by Nigeria government.

Meanwhile, police on Wednesday offered a $300,000 reward to anyone who could provide information leading to the rescue of the schoolgirls.

"The Nigeria police hereby announce a cash reward of 50m naira to anyone who volunteers credible information that will lead to the location and rescue of the female students abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State," the police said in a statement.

The police also released six phone numbers and urged Nigerians to call.

Abubakar Shekau, a Boko Haram leader, threatened in a video to sell the girls who were taken from the secondary school in the village of Chibok "on the market".

Nigerian leaders also accepted an offer by the US to send a team to the country to help search for the missing girls.

The US team consists of "military, law enforcement, and other agencies", US President Barack Obama said in an interview with US broadcaster ABC, and will work to "identify where in fact these girls might be and provide them help".

Obama also denounced Boko Haram as "one of the worst regional or local terrorist organisations".

"This may be the event that helps to mobilise the entire international community to finally do something against this horrendous organisation that's perpetrated such a terrible crime," he said.