Cameroon,
Chad and Niger have launched a regional bid to combat the Boko Haram
Islamists, as their attacks spread beyond Nigeria and concern mounts
over the Nigerians' failure to regain control.
The
three neighbours have opted for a joint military response to the
cross-border threat from Boko Haram fighters and have made veiled
criticisms of Nigeria, whose armed forces appear no match for the
Islamist group that emerged in 2009.
Brutal
raids, massacres, suicide bomb attacks and kidnappings by Boko Haram
have claimed at least 13,000 lives and driven an estimated 1.5 million
people from their homes, mainly in arid northeast Nigeria. Officially,
all four states, whose borders converge in remote territory at Lake
Chad, formed a military alliance that was due to take shape last
November to battle Boko Haram. But building a combined Lake Chad force
seems to have dropped off the agenda. Cameroon in particular has been
critical of what it sees as the Nigerian authorities' passivity in the
face of Boko Haram.
'Boko Haram's deadliest act
The
move comes after the Islamists seized Baga town on the Nigerian shore
of Lake Chad early this month in an offensive that "could be Boko
Haram's deadliest act", according to Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for
Amnesty International.
Eyre
said as many as 2,000 civilians may have been massacred, but Nigeria's
army objected to the "sensational" claims and said that the death toll
in Baga was about 150.
The
Islamists detained "over 500 women and hundreds of children" in a
school, one woman who escaped the area told AFP, adding that she had
seen "decomposing bodies scattered all over".
US
Secretary of State John Kerry joined rights monitors in blaming Boko
Haram for "a crime against humanity" on the basis of evidence from the
towns in northern Nigeria. Nigeria's army had planned to use the
isolated settlement of Baga as one of its key bases to work with a
regional force.
However,
the other countries are opposed to any major deployment inside a
bastion of Boko Haram, which is against Western education and wants to
establish an Islamist caliphate.
"The
most worrying situation for us today is Nigeria, it's the situation of
Boko Haram," Niger's Defence Minister Karidjo Mahamadou said after the
fall of Baga.
"Since
November, we have no longer been at that post (Baga). We explained to
the Nigerians that we could not stay since we did not wish to put the
lives of our soldiers in danger," Mahamadou said.
'Kick out the evil forces
Like
Niger, Cameroon was strongly opposed to the Baga deployment option and
will not send any troops into Nigeria on a permanent basis, security
sources said after officials said the army killed 143 Boko Haram
fighters who had attacked a military base in the northern town of
Kolofata.
President
Paul Biya favours the exchange of intelligence reports to enable
coordinated operations, but believes each nation should act on its own
territory around Lake Chad, the security sources said.
Cameroon has for months complained about the Nigerian army's lack of fight and mass desertions in the face of the Islamists.
"Nigerian
soldiers abandon their weapons when they desert their positions," a
Cameroonian military officer said early this week. "Those are the
weapons with which we are attacked."
For
Chad, its battle-hardened army will step in to help "in the courageous
and determined response of (Cameroon's) armed force against the criminal
and terrorist acts of Boko Haram," the government stated Wednesday
after President Idriss Deby received Cameroon's defence minister.
0 comments:
Post a Comment