Related: Forget Nigeria
"Boko Haram makes ruthless push in Nigeria; Rifts between US, Nigeria impeding fight against terror group" by Helene Cooper, New York Times January 25, 2015
WASHINGTON — Relations between US military trainers and specialists advising the Nigerian military in the fight against Boko Haram are so strained that the Pentagon often bypasses the Nigerians altogether, choosing to work instead with security officials in the neighboring countries of Chad, Cameroon, and Niger, according to defense officials and diplomats.
Related:
U.S. aiding Boko Haram allies in CAR U.s. Special Forces deployed by
the Obama administration to the Central African Republic have been
assisting Islamist guerrilla allies of the Nigeria-based Islamist
caliphate led by Boko Haram. The recent
surrender to U.S forces in the Central African Republic of Ugandan Lords
Resistance Army (LRA) senior commander Dominic Ongwen, known as the
"White Ant," was part of a joint U.S.-United Nations integrated
stabilization force (MINUSCA) mission targeting both exiled Ugandan LRA
and CAR "anti-balaka" guerrillas who have jointly been fighting against
Muslim extremist Selena guerrillas. Selena previously, with Saudi support, attempted to establish an Islamic state in the CAR. Islamist Selena forces, operating in the
same manner as Boko Haram terrorists in northern Nigeria and Cameroon,
which lie to the west of the CAR, terrorized Cars Christians by
attacking their villages with guns and machetes. The Christians organized the anti-balaka movement (balaka means machete) to defend against Islamist attacks. The Selena alliance was supported by the president they installed in the capital of Bangui, Michel Djotodia. After
Djotodia was forced from power by the African Union, the UN MINUSCA
forces, drawn from Ugandan and Cameroonian, among other forces, began to
target the Christian anti-balaka forces. U.s. Special Forces have backed MINUSCA in its efforts. This
collaboration not only led to the capture and surrender of LRA
commander Ongwen but also anti-balaka General Rodrigue Ngaibona, also
known by his nom de guerre, "General Andilo." Both Ogwen and Andilo have been transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Although U.S. forces have targeted
the leadership of the manly Christian LRA and anti-balaka, they has
refrained from attempting to capture leaders of Boko Haram, which have
taken advantage of Cameroonian military intervention in the CAR, to
launch attacks against Cameroonian villages and military bases on the
Nigerian border. Boko Haram is believed to have allies in Chad, from which the CAR Selena guerrillas also receive support. Boko Haram has announced that it intends to expand its caliphate into Cameroon, Niger, Chad, and the CAR. Meanwhile,
U.S. troops are pursuing anti-balaka and LRA forces which could serve
as a bulwark aganst encroaching Boko Haram forces. While MINUSCA and their U.S.
Special Forces overseers have concentrated on attacking the Christian
anti-balaka, who are armed only with old hunting rifles, magical amulets
said to protect them, and poison arrows, Boko Haram, which has
proclaimed an alliance with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL) caliphate and another caliphate established in eastern Libya, has
massacred at least 2000 in recent atatcks in northern Nigeria and taken
several Christian girls captive as slaves. Abubakr
Shekau has emerged as the leader of Boko Haram, but unlike the
Christian LRA and anti-balaka leadership, Shekau is not being chased by
U.S. Special Forces. Although the film
"American Sniper" has engendered all sorts of anti-Muslim feelings among
American theater goers, in central Africa, U.S. Special Operations
forces fight to protect the most radical of Islamist guerrillas,
something that may come as a surprise to the Fox News types who have
lauded "American Sniper" it's the main character sharpshooter, Chris
Kyle. http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20150120
--SOURCE--"
Also see:
Global court takes custody of Uganda rebel leader
LRA Rebel, Set for War Crimes Trial, Was a Child Soldier
United States Has No Understanding For Uganda
You won't get it reading a Globe, that's for sure.
Major rifts like these between the Nigerian and US militaries have been hampering the fight against Boko Haram militants as they charge through northern Nigeria, razing villages, abducting children, and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.
Uh-huh.
Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to travel to Nigeria on Sunday to meet with the candidates in Nigeria’s presidential elections, and the Pentagon says the Nigerian army is still an important ally in the region — vital to checking Boko Haram before it transforms into a larger, and possibly more transnational, threat.
So is their oil.
“In some respects, they look like ISIL two years ago,” Michael G. Vickers, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, told the Atlantic Council last week, using another name for the militant group known as the Islamic State. “How fast their trajectory can go up is something we’re paying a lot of attention to. But certainly in their area, they’re wreaking a lot of destruction.”
But US officials are wary of the Nigerian military as well, citing corruption and sweeping human rights abuses by its soldiers. US officials are hesitant to share intelligence with the Nigerian military because they contend it has been infiltrated by Boko Haram, an accusation that has prompted indignation from Nigeria.
What are they hiding?
“We don’t have a foundation for what I would call a good partnership right now,” said a senior military official with the US Africa Command, or AFRICOM, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. “We want a relationship based on trust, but you have to be able to see yourself. And they’re in denial.”
Would you trust the United States?
The United States was so concerned about Boko Haram infiltration that US officials have not included raw data in intelligence they have provided Nigeria, worried that their sources would be compromised.
In retaliation, Nigeria in December canceled the last stage of US training of a newly created Nigerian army battalion. There has been no resumption of the training since then.
Some Nigerian officials expressed dismay that relations between the two militaries have frayed to this point.
“For a small country like Chad, or Cameroon, to come to assist” the Americans, “that is disappointing,” said Ahmed Zanna, a senator from Nigeria’s north. “You have a very good and reliable ally, and you are running away from them,” he said, faulting the Nigerian government. “It is terrible. I pray for a change of government.”
The tensions have been mounting for years. In their battle against Boko Haram, Nigerian troops have rounded up and killed young men in northern cities indiscriminately, rampaged through neighborhoods, and, according to witnesses and local officials, killed scores of civilians in a retaliatory massacre in a village in 2013.
But they are a vital ally.
All the while, Boko Haram has continued its ruthless push through Nigeria, bombing schools and markets, torching thousands of buildings and homes, and kidnapping hundreds of people.
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NDU:
"Nigerian rebels attack critical city; hundreds killed" by Adam Nossiter, New York Times January 26, 2015
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Maiduguri, the major city in Nigeria’s northeast, came under sustained attack from Boko Haram terrorists Sunday, with officials here calling it the group’s most audacious assault on the city.
It is.
The fighting killed more than 200 combatants on both sides, the Associated Press reported. Initial reports also suggested that civilian casualties were substantial.
This city of more than 2 million people was attacked beginning late Saturday night from at least two directions by the militants from the Islamist insurgency, which effectively controls the territory surrounding the city. Loud explosions were heard in the center of the city and small-arms fire and artillery in its suburbs.
“Certainly this is the most serious attack yet,” said Kashim Shettima, the governor of Borno state, of which Maiduguri is the capital. “We faced a really existential threat.”
Officials said later that bombs dropped on insurgent positions had turned the tide toward the government forces. But there were reports that a major military installation in a town to the north, Monguno, had fallen to the insurgents, with more than 1,000 soldiers fleeing to the bush in the face of the attack.
Looks like a U.S. troop presence is needed -- if there isn't one already. Then it needs to be upped, 'eh, 'eh, 'eh?
The attack on Maiduguri coincided with a visit by Secretary of State John Kerry to Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, for meetings with President Goodluck Jonathan and his challenger in next month’s presidential election, Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general.
No kidding?
Kerry called on the candidates to respect the results of the vote and to discourage their supporters from carrying out violent protests. “It is imperative that these elections happen on time, as scheduled, and that they are an improvement over past elections,” Kerry said.
Meaning the U.S. has worked real hard to rig them.
The talks also focused on the Boko Haram threat amid mounting friction between the United States and Nigeria about how best to deal it.
Witnesses reported seeing hundreds of residents fleeing the suburbs and rushing toward the city’s center. They also reported seeing some Nigerian troops moving away from the fighting, as in numerous previous engagements with the Islamists.
Maiduguri was placed under curfew and the center of the city was calm later Sunday. The streets were empty, with vehicle traffic largely banned.
The sustained attack by the Islamists on the center of Nigerian state and military power in this section of the country — the city that was their movement’s birthplace — was one more indication that they are stepping up the pace of their offensive before the critical presidential election next month.
That's the NYT narrative anyway.
The attack came hours after Jonathan had left Maiduguri after a campaign speech.
Hmmmm!
Just before the president arrived in the city, the militants had attacked Kambari, a village 3 miles from Maiduguri, burning it and killing 15 people.
Guy sure has Goodluck, huh?
One of the governor’s security advisers, a retired military intelligence officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of this position, said, “They must have coordinated their attack very well. As they were attacking, they were coming in four different directions.”
A top federal police official, who was in Maiduguri in the wake of the presidential visit and asked not to be identified so that he could speak freely, said, “In the early hours of the day the Boko Haram wanted to come into town. But by the grace of God, we have repelled them.”
Hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes and at least 10,000 killed during the course of the Islamists’ insurgency, now stretching into its sixth year. Brutal assaults on civilians have characterized their bloody insurrection.
How the United States plans to help Nigeria regain the initiative against militant group remains unclear.
Well, they could stop funding and directing the terror groups for starters.
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I should have forget this.
