The Government of Nigeria imposed a 24 hour curfew due to a recent attack on an Air Force Base and a couple of the Army bases right outside the main city in the state of Borno. The attack started early Monday morning 02DEC13, where reports of hundreds of heavily armed insurgents stormed the bases and destroying equipment along with vehicles and also fought the soldiers of the bases in long firefight. Reports of screaming women and children could also be heard near the bases. The Boko Haram insurgents attacked the bases in an effort to try to push their religious and political agenda in the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. These fighters have strong ties to Al Qaeda in this region and along with the support of Al Qaeda they want to enact the Sharia Law in the region. The Sharia Law being the Laws Muslims have to follow from their own religious texts. These laws would then be enforced to all civilians in this region and let the Islamic religion have more control over the land then the actual government would. The people's confidence in the military has taken a hard hit because of the reports that the military has had good results from pushing these insurgents out of the country letting the people feel they can breathe easier in their own towns. Thousands of civilians lives have been lost since May because of these attacks. To combat this the military and the government having been trying to find a way to seriously hurt the efforts of the Boko Haram fighters. After the government declared a state of emergency in Borno, they had a huge military presence roll into the area and even people's daily life changed by cutting cell phone links and closing the civilian airport down for a brief time. Unfortunately it is obvious that the insurgents are strong still and can hit anywhere they want in this region.
This situation goes right along with our current topic in class of "terrorism" and "insurgency". In this situation in Nigeria, we see an insurgent group coming into a part of the country and through force they are striking fear into the state of Borno and the surrounding areas. These attacks are directed to the government and the people, the insurgents want a Islamic rule over the region, this would require the government to change policy and give a lot of power to the Muslim leaders in the area and would require all people to also follow what is order by these new religious leaders. New laws would be enacted and justice would be set by religion and not state. This would leave the terrorist in charge of the area making it a good staging area for terrorist camps and training. What could come next if that happened? Could it initiate an United States intervention in Nigeria then to save this region from the oppression of the Boko Haram?
Well it seems that these insurgents are on their path to success. If their goals did indeed come to fruition, and held both terrorist camps and training, I could see this area becoming a total war zone. Government would have no control and the citizens would have no say. Nigeria is always a failed state, ranked at number 16 behind Guinea-Bissau, but through speculation these actions may make it closer to Iraq or Afghanistan. My reasoning behind this is because the factors that attribute to a failed state: chronic and sustained human flight, massive displacement of refugees, severe economic decline, and widespread human rights abuses. The implementation of making this area in Nigeria a ground for terrorism, without any government intervention, would further increase the likelihood and chance of the factors previously listed. Another factor for failed states is the intervention of external political agents. So, I these insurgent attacks could cause sentiment for US intervention in the region to avert the oppression in the Boko Haram.
ReplyDeleteThe United States should definitely stay out of the situation, as resources and support for any war already spread thin. The UN or the new Euro crisis task force should be deployed to the region. What good they'll do is up for debate. The US isn't going to be welcome there on it's own or as the main leader. The international community needs to step up and play a decisive role if it believes intervention is the best solution to these situations. If not then it needs to stop shorting intervention actions and actually intend to fix the situation. Otherwise the world needs to stop being a weeping heart and realize conflict occurs in other places than home.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what the ethnic make up of the region is, but I'd be interested to see if it's anything like the Central African Republic. Which has a Catholic majority but recently last year through a coup is run by an Islamic regime. There has been violence and near civil war since.
Although the insurgent group Boko Haram's large scale attack on the military airbase in Maidurguri is of serious evaluation, the attack does not signal any evolution in terrorist's movements in promoting a clear political agenda, but rather shows their persistence and capabilities in confrontation with the Nigerian government's movements to use counterterrorism. In this sense, the terrorist attacks could be attempting to send messages that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is weak unable to manage the country's security issues. However, it does seem that Nigeria's counterterrorist movement has established a series of key factors that seem to aid extremely mobilization of terrorist organizations. Theses issues include but are not limited to: political, social, and economic issues that have been unaddressed and have established a series of strong grievances against the current Nigerian government within the regime. This probably because of the already poor condition of the areas infrastructure along with the violence that has halted potential economic and social development. Since these areas have become highly restricted, the areas Boko Haram resides is experiencing slower growth and development, which just further intensifies the conflict. As a result, the restricted movement within these regions has forced Boko Haram to plan and mobilize with a type of fluidity that does not only effect, people and civilians, but also structures and social norms that bring communities together. It is overall a very difficult situation, since insurgents are seriously damaging the political legitimacy while simultaneously preventing substantial economic growth.
ReplyDelete