By: Patrick Foley
In his inauguration speech delivered in late May of this year, Nigerian President Buhari said that Boko Haram is the country’s most immediate threat and pledged to Nigeria and its neighboring countries that he would prioritize fighting against the Islamist militants. “Our neighbors in the Sub-Saharan region and our African brethren should rest assured that Nigeria under our administration will be ready to play any leadership role that Africa expects of it,” Buhari told a crowd at Abuja’s Eagle Square.
Recently, soldiers from the African countries of Chad, Cameroon and Niger have been effective in restricting Boko Haram’s ability to seek shelter outside of Nigeria. A statement from the Nigerian Defense Ministry revealed that a Major General from Nigeria has already assumed his new duties commanding troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger. These countries have jointly expressed their determination to defeat Boko Haram, and new President Buhari left no doubt about his desire to control the counter-insurgency effort. Rejecting a six-month rotational command structure between the five nations, he said, “such a process will undermine, even if it is not intended, the military capacity to sustain the push against the insurgents.” A single commander would improve “the effectiveness of military strategy, since Nigeria will be providing the bulk of the troops and the main theatre of the war is on Nigerian soil,” the Nigerian leader added.
While the involved nations feel positive about Nigeria’s renewed dedication to countering the terrorist group, the record of human rights abuses committed by the Nigerian Army has given the heads of state some reservations about allowing Nigeria to keep control. In early June, Amnesty International released a detailed report accusing the Nigerian army of killing about 8,000 civilians during its campaign against Boko Haram, and named several senior officers it accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to U.N. statistics, Boko Haram’s six-year insurgency has left more than 1.5 million people displaced and 4.6 million in need of humanitarian assistance in Nigeria alone. Since March 2011, more than 7,000 young men have died in military detention, while more than 1,200 people were unlawfully killed since February 2012. Amnesty named and called for an investigation of three Major Generals and two Brigadier Generals, as well as four current and former chiefs of staff. “Thousands of young men and boys have been arbitrarily arrested and deliberately killed or left to die in detention in the most horrific conditions,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty’s secretary-general. “It provides strong grounds for investigations into the possible criminal responsibility of members of the military, including those at the highest levels.” The report was predominately based on the accounts of former detainees and senior military sources who have described how detainees were regularly tortured to death. The methods involved being hung on poles over fires, tossed into deep pits or interrogated using electric batons,” said the report.
The Nigerian Ministry of Defense denounced the Amnesty report in no uncertain terms and actually accused the organization of trying to “blackmail” the military elite. In Niger, Buhari’s spokesman, Garbu Shehu, said the president had received the report and would review Amnesty’s allegations, according to Nigerian media reports. “Respect for human rights and adherence to the rule of law are the life and soul of the democratic system. We will not tolerate or condone impunity and reckless disregard for human rights,” Buhari said, according to Mr. Shehu.