All I know is that Nigeria is at WAR, and am praying fervently for the day this braying azz will be silenced and flung into a shallow pit for jackals to eat

A screengrab taken on July 13, 2014 from a video released by the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram and obtained by AFP shows the leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau (centre) (AFP Photo/Ho)

Every week a new atrocity seems to strike the people of Nigeria’s north, where government forces have fought a nearly five-year war with the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. The world’s attention briefly focused on Africa’s most populous, and one of its wealthiest, countries in April when Boko Haram — whose name crudely translates to “Western influence is sinful” — abducted 300 schoolgirls, apparently dispersing many to the service of leaders in its sphere of influence, which now stretches to neighboring Cameroon's border.

Boko Haram has been emboldened by the success of Islamic State, observers say, and like IS, the group has declared an intent to create a “caliphate,” a religious state where governing principles are interpreted from the Koran. In Boko Haram's case, the caliphate would be in Nigeria's north. The group has been known to massacre the inhabitants of entire small villages, using modern weapons or the ancient terror of beheading, and not sparing women or children.

The Nigerian military has sporadically tried to halt the group’s advance and had been regarded as a force for good. But now, as PBS FRONTLINE’s documentary, “Hunting Boko Haram,” chronicles in dozens of witness testimonials, video documentation and interviews, Nigeria's armed forces have crossed a boundary into darkness. As the raiser of militia groups under the two-year-old “Operation Flush,” Nigeria's army has trained, paid and haphazardly armed an amateur military that has become as deadly and feared a force as Boko Haram itself.

Caught between are Nigeria’s innocents.

“There is nowhere for people to go,” said Evan Williams, the Australian documentary writer and producer of “Hunting Boko Haram,” which can be seen exclusively here before its broadcast premiere tonight on PBS (check local listings). “They can’t go to the military or the police and say, ‘Where is my son, where is my father,’ without themselves being marked as having a possible tie to Boko Haram,” said Williams, who arrived in Nigeria five months ago after a double car-bombing in the city of Jos, where a substantial part of Muslim vs. Christian violence has occurred, left at least 118 dead.

Part one of "Hunting Boko Haram":
[img]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn4pkAxgaKo[/img]
http://youtu.be/nn4pkAxgaKo

In the course of his reporting, a man who belonged to one of the Operation Flush militias gave Williams 35 video recordings depicting its methods and told him how he was beginning to deeply question the mission.

“The military and the state government gave them the power to hold and detain anyone,” Williams said in a telephone interview with Yahoo News. “The problem, and it remains, and it is intensifying, is that these militia are not trained, they are local boys, often with machetes. …They tortured confessions out of people — and as we know, torturing victims to get evidence is the least effective way of getting anything truthful.”

The videos were often shot on mobile phones, Williams said, as the militiamen sought to document activities to prove to their bosses that they deserved to get paid. The videos depict the worst kinds of torture. With machetes, swords, bows and arrows, Operation Flush militiamen were encouraged to deal with Boko Haram suspects as harshly as they chose, wherever they thought they might have found them.

Subsequently, Williams accumulated more than 120 videos, which he then corroborated with eyewitnesses, other members of Operation Flush militias, and human rights workers and experts. All wanted to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from the military, he said, not from Boko Haram.

They depict a scenario reminiscent of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, where any whisper of collaboration with the enemy meant detention and worse. “The militia would move into a town, sometimes with the military, sometimes on their own,” Williams said. “They would do a security sweep, make sure all men were rounded up and forced to sit in the town square, and then try to determine who they thought was Boko Haram or not. They would start with some sympathizers who might identify others. They were getting paid, so they needed to keep finding victims — they needed to find more people to keep the machine going.

“They would use a ‘computer,’ or a ‘spotter,’ who claimed to know Boko Haram in the area,” sometimes a child, Williams said. “He would pick out people, and then the militia would tie them up and beat them to get a confession and then turn them over to the military.” Occasionally, Operation Flush militias would even detain people who had been Boko Haram prisoners and had been released.

Part two of "Hunting Boko Haram":
[img]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQruyXRGgzQ[/img]
http://youtu.be/uQruyXRGgzQ

Some of those handed over to the Nigerian military were brought to the Giwa Barracks in the city of Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria's Borno state, and the scene of the worst Boko Haram attacks. One man who told Williams of his experiences at Giwa said that of 120 men taken with him to the barracks, only nine came out alive.

“When he was taken in, the first thing he was told is, ‘Welcome to your death house,’ ” Williams said. No one came to question them, the man told Williams, and dozens were held in small rooms for weeks. Many died of dehydration or cholera. Nothing that resembled due process of justice seemed to happen in Giwa, and it was only a substantial bribe paid to the military by his father that secured the man’s release, Williams said.

Operation Flush has created an environment in which innocent Nigerians have nobody to turn to for help in finding relatives that have gone missing at Boko Haram’s hands, for fear of being branded a collaborator, Williams said. Nigerians are likely turning to Boko Haram for protection from government militias operating without constraint.

“Up to 3,000 men were missing who had been detained by the military,” Williams said, but the number could be more than 4,000. Boko Haram itself, over a five-year period, is thought to be responsible for more than 5,000 civilian deaths.

“This is a deadly environment, and Boko Haram are savage,” Williams said. “But there has to be due process. There are a lot of innocent people being caught up in a situation where there should be more accountability.”

FRONTLINE's "Hunting Boko Haram" premieres tonight on PBS and can be
watched online here: Part one and part two.

a lot of stories to tell and listen to when Nigeria finally nailed the manace of bh to death stake

They have STARTED AGAIN. BH apologhsts have Started Their Media Propaganda.

They didn't see the negative and destructive acts of BH in Mubi, Gworza, Damboa etc

The current push by the military is yielding results and here is a report from an apologist.

If this report is true then the military will have to do a lot of work to get the locals support

amAZEing: They have STARTED AGAIN. BH apologhsts have Started Their Media Propaganda.

They didn't see the negative and destructive acts of BH in Mubi, Gworza, Damboa etc

The current push by the military is yielding results and here is a report from an apologist.

Abeg, ME, an APOLOGIST?? You need to check my posts my friend, am nothing of the sort. I am simply showing people what the media outlets are up to. Knowledge is much better than ignorance.

Ekundayo7:
Abeg, ME, an APOLOGIST?? You need to check my posts my friend, am nothing of the sort. I am simply showing people what the media outlets are up to. Knowledge is much better than ignorance.

And you think that's gonna cut it?
You are either extremely foolish or a poorly trained internet propagandist. What on earth can be the good to come out of posting something which is sympathetic to Boko Haram? Why on earth would you do this except because you are their supporter? And why impersonate a Yoruba when we know for a fact that you are neither Yoruba nor even Nigerian?
Lol.

rickkid:
And you think that's gonna cut it?
You are either extremely foolish or a poorly trained internet propagandist. What on earth can be the good to come out of posting something which is sympathetic to Boko Haram? Why on earth would you do this except because you are their supporter? And why impersonate a Yoruba when we know for a fact that you are neither Yoruba nor even Nigerian?
Lol.

Well the truth is that a lot of innocent Nigerians have lost their lives by way of this kangaroo courts set up by these militias to justify the pay and support they receive from government.

Someone needs to tell their stories too.

Reptyle:

Well the truth is that a lot of innocent Nigerians have lost their lives by way of this kangaroo courts set up by these militias to justify the pay and support they receive from government.

Someone needs to tell their stories too.

Lol and it's a foreigner pretending to be a Yoruba man who loves the "innocent Nigerians" so much that he decides to "tell their stories" while the war is still on and the situation is still delicate?
You naïve fellow.

rickkid:
Lol and it's a foreigner pretending to be a Yoruba man who loves the "innocent Nigerians" so much that he decides to "tell their stories" while the war is still on and the situation is still delicate?
You naïve fellow.

It is you who is naive my friend.

I do not think it matters who tells the story.

While our local journalists are depending on press releases from Defence HQ and reporting news about the crisis in the northeast from their studios in Lagos and Abuja, foreign journalists are going into crises spots and bringing you videos and live reports.

We have heard a lot about the exploits of our gallant soldiers in the Northeast. If these foreigners do not let us know the other aspects of the war, how will we know?

You should experience the torment of an average citizen in one of the troubled areas who is daily caught in the crossfire between the insurgents and federal troops...then maybe you wont be so smug in your demeanour.

Reptyle:

It is you who is naive my friend.

I do not think it matters who tells the story.

While our local journalists are depending on press releases from Defence HQ and reporting news about the crisis in the northeast from their studios in Lagos and Abuja, foreign journalists are going into crises spots and bringing you videos and live reports.

We have heard a lot about the exploits of our gallant soldiers in the Northeast. If these foreigners do not let us know the other aspects of the war, how will we know?

You should experience the torment of an average citizen in one of the troubled areas who is daily caught in the crossfire between the insurgents and federal troops...then maybe you wont be so smug in your demeanour.

Cry me a river, Mr internet shill. FYI the real propaganda legwork in our neck of the woods is the radio, not the internet. You can write as much rubbish as you want, it just won't work.
Shouldn't you be on BBC Hausa openly campaigning for Boko Haram along with the rest of your team?

You must be REALLY low in the pecking order to be assigned to Nairaland . Are they even paying you enough for this to be worth your while?

rickkid:
Cry me a river, Mr internet shill. FYI the real propaganda legwork in our neck of the woods is the radio, not the internet. You can write as much rubbish as you want, it just won't work.
Shouldn't you be on BBC Hausa openly campaigning for Boko Haram along with the rest of your team?

You must be REALLY low in the pecking order to be assigned to Nairaland . Are they even paying you enough for this to be worth your while?

Oh so because I do not share your opinion, I am now a paid boko haram propagandist?

Such a child

I see you are seriously phishing for someone to engage in your puerile back and forth.

I am not he that you seek.

Good luck on finding them

.

rickkid:
And you think that's gonna cut it?
You are either extremely foolish or a poorly trained internet propagandist. What on earth can be the good to come out of posting something which is sympathetic to Boko Haram? Why on earth would you do this except because you are their supporter? And why impersonate a Yoruba when we know for a fact that you are neither Yoruba nor even Nigerian?
Lol.

EXCUSE ME YOUR ignorance might pass for "wisdom" in the circles you run with but some people actually MIGHT WANT TO KNOW WHO IS SHAPING WORLD OPINION THROUGH MEDIA. I am anti ANYTHING to do with Boko Haram and personally am not a fan of hausa fulani even being allowed to live in SW. They kill Yoruba for any thing up North, so why should they be allowed to settle, make their businesses and keep people up all hours of the night with their prayers. I don't even like YORUBA being Muslim so think on that one for a while. And who the FECK are YOU to say I am IMPERSONATING A YORUBA, you stupid eediot. So I suppose you are "IMPERSONATING A WHITE MAN" because you type in english? You have no fecking CLUE to who I really am and what I do in life so sod off and go run some errands for you oga.