A recent report by Reuters on the Nigerian military's struggle against the ISLAMIC STATE in West Africa is rife with unsubstantiated claims. Surely there have been a spate of killings lately, whether this report is hyperbole or factual matters not. Whats troubling is how the West has in recent months being gradually replacing Boko Haram with ISIS West Africa, trying to shove ISIS down our throat through subterfuge. One thing has changed though, the manner in which Boko Haram have been executing its attacks, and mostly targeting military bases rather than unarmed defenceless civilians, complete with tactical gears and radios bears the hallmark of a well-trained conventional army than a rag-tag militia.

Let us examine Boko Haram's attack on the Nigerian army bases in recent months.

In July Boko Haram insurgents invaded an army base holding hundreds of soldiers from the 81 Division Forward Brigade in Yobe state, in an attack that lasted hours. The insurgents came in huge numbers at 7:30pm and overran the base after a fierce firefight that lasted until 9:10 pm. This base had 734 troops. A leader of a local anti-jihadist militia said that they drove from Lake Chad through Gubio (in nearby Borno state) and attacked the base.

Now, this attack on the base took place just days after Boko Haram fighters ambushed a military convoy in neighbouring Borno state.

On 8 September hundreds of Boko Haram fighters in gun trucks stormed a town in Guzamala Local Government Area of Borno State and engaged troops in a fire fight that lasted hours. One thing worthy of note here is that Boko Haram attackers asked the villagers to vacate the area so that what they came to do will not affect them. According to eye-witness reports, their target was the army base and the insurgents were filly kitted with radios and khaki and covered their faces.

Unfortunately for the insurgents they could not match the fire power of Nigerian. Unable to overrun the base they retreated to the Lake Chad basin. Why Nigerian helicopter gunships were not deployed to engage the retreating fighters remains a mystery. There have been several attacks targeting Nigerian army bases only, at least 3 military bases have been overrun in the last two months, mostly at night.

How has Boko Haram insurgents been able to penetrated such a dense network of base security and unleash mayhem? How do they know when to attack, where to attack and numbers to attack with?

For the past two years since the recapture of all Boko Haram control territories and the climatic fall of the Sambisa forest to the Nigerian army, the United States and France have aggressively expanded their foothold in all countries bordering Nigeria, supposedly in a righteous cause of helping Nigeria destroy the hyper-secterian terrorist group - Boko Haram.

A revealing light on the 2015 CIA report, which uncanny predicts and effectively welcomes the prospect of a Nigeria breakup along ethno-religious sectarian lines. While fortunately the 2015 prediction failed to materialize, it is not far-fetched that the French and American listening posts (CIA STATION) are supporting Boko Haram's effort to take control of the northeast or spark a civil war in the country.


Raising the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared caliphate is exactly what the supporting powers want, in order to isolate Nigeria, whose population, economic influence and near limitless resources affords Nigeria the ability to make independent policies outside of Franco-American sphere of influence, making Nigeria the undisputed regional hegemon, whose economic wealth, diplomatic clout and military strength hold ECOWAS, and by and large %95 of West Africa together. The push for Moroccan membership of  ECOWAS was meant to bring a counter balance to Nigeria in the economic sphere.

The indicators are clear enough. A year and half into the fall of the Sambisa, not before the fall, not during the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency when they controlled huge swathes of land the size of Belgium, but after the fall of Sambisa, the U.S and its ally France dramatically increased their military footprint in the region, ostensibly to help monitor and fight a vanquished enemy?

The U.S and France were not only clandestinely supporting and arming a jihadi group they knew had an agenda to turn northeast Nigeria into an enclave and spark sectarian violence around the country, they were prepared to countenance the creation of some sort of Islamic state - despite the grave danger to Nigeria's unity.

Of course this doesn't mean the U.S or France created Boko Haram, though some of Nigeria's neighbors have been secretly paying millions of dollars in secrete ransom payments to Boko Haram, facilitated by French banks, but there was no ISIS West Africa until the U.S and France invaded West Africa. And the U.S has certainly exploited the existence of terrorist groups and other forces in the region as part of a wider drive to maintain western control in the region, with multi-million dollar drone bases in virtually every country along Nigeria's periphery and making military pacts and agreements with Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Chad and of recent Ghana, and pushing for Moroccan ECOWAS membership, and possibly a Tunisian bid too, all within the space of 12 months.

But this U.S and French habit of playing with jihadi groups, which then come back to bite their yansh, goes back at least to the 1980 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which fostered the Mujaheeden and al-Qaida under CIA tutelage. The Americans did it again in Iraq during the occupation when U.S forces sponsored a dirty war of sectarian death squads to weaken the Iraqi resistance. This was reprised in 2011 in the French orchestrated NATO's war in Libya, where ISIS took control of Gadaffi's home town in Sirte and made Libya its second headquarters.

The Franco-American conflagration in West Africa is exactly the classic mould of imperial divide-and-rule. America slams economic sanctions and blocks arms deals between Nigeria - a democratcy and any of her allies over alleged human rights abuses, and then makes overtures to dictators and despotic regimes next door, offering military assistance and economic assistance dictators. They accuse the Nigerian army of deliberately targeting civilians and other human rights abuses while turning a blind eye to the systematic slaughter of civilians in Southern Cameroonians by Gandermes and BIR troops in their agitation against economic and political marginalization.

Make no mistake Nigerian army is no slouch, and despite evidence to the contrary the Nigerian military is better trained and better equipped than at any time in its history and will wipe the floor in a conventional with any of its neighbors. Boko Haram is able to carry out such spectacular surprise attacks because of the support and intelligence it is receiving.

Attacking a military base is no small feat. It requires solid intel on number on troops, security systems, troop movement etc. These attacks not random but painstakingly planned and orchestrated. The question is where is Boko Haram getting its intel from? How do they determine the number of troops at the base and attack with a 2 to 1 numerical advantage? Where are they getting their weapons and kits from? Where are they receiving training on conventional tactical assaults? why are they coming from and retreating unmolested to the Lake Chad area after each attack ? What exactly is the purpose of all these Reaper drone bases all over Nigeria's northern periphery?

What is clear is that Boko Haram aka ISIS West Africa and its monstrosities wont be defeated with the support of the same powers that are keeping them alive in the first place, or whose open and covert war-making has fostered it in recent years. The increasing presence of foreign powers and proliferation of intelligence stations and drone bases and air force bases have brought only destruction and division.

There are many things wrong with Nigeria where the government is to blame on the domestic front. However on the perpetual resurgence of Boko Haram after every defeat, the enemy is not within. It is the people of the region who can cure this disease - not those who incubated the virus.

How many times have the army attacked boko haram? They should be the ones taking the fight to BH not the other way round

Oh well Said. I have always wondered. What or who are the sources of funding for this group? Surely it shouldn't be difficult for the Government with its vast intelligence gathering capabilities to determine?

aolawale025:
How many times have the army attacked boko haram? They should be the ones taking the fight to BH not the other way round

Attack them from where lol? Niger or Chadian territory? That's their base of operation.

FirstCounsel:
Oh well Said. I have always wondered. What or who are the sources of funding for this group? Surely it shouldn't be difficult for the Government with its vast intelligence gathering capabilities to determine?

My brother, its Buhari. He has been funding them with millions (running into hundreds) of euro as ransom. Can't you see that the once hungry-looking BH fighters are now well fed with sophisticated weapons and modern gear.