Renewed Boko Haram attacks and foreign mercenaries

THE renewed attacks by armed bandit groups and the intensified violence by Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa leave civilians in North-East Nigeria at risk of atrocity crimes. For nearly 17 years, civilians in Nigeria have faced multiple security threats and risk of atrocities due to attacks, kidnappings and extortion by various non-state armed groups. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the security situation has resulted in a humanitarian emergency, with millions of people – approximately 80 percent of whom are women and children – requiring urgent assistance. Military observers and media reports say mercenaries are fighting alongside the Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa against the Nigerian Armed Forces. Countries including Chad, Mali, Niger, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Libya have been identified as sources of mercenaries lured either by filial and tribal connections to Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa or by money gained from his gold mines in Northern Nigeria. The involvement of foreign mercenaries risks widening the conflict and worsening insecurity in the politically volatile regions in Nigeria.

Nigeria government should seek foreign military assistance in the fight against terrorists, some people have vehemently opposed my position, contending that Nigeria has the capacity to defeat Boko Haram, bandits, killer Fulani herdsmen, etc . Nigeria is at war! And it is obvious we are not decimating these terrorists as we are being made to believe. If these destructive enemies of Nigeria still have the capacity to attack military bases in the North, one wonders the fate of civilians living in the north. Federal Government should declare a state of emergency on insecurity and urgently seek foreign military assistance from friendly nations to prosecute this war. For those that don’t know, it has cost Nigeria more than 15 billion dollars in the last 10 years fighting terrorism in the north.  Recently, Nigeria called on the United Nations to investigate the funding and training of the Boko Haram terrorists. The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, made the call in a recent interview he had with Al-Jazeera. Musa said there was international flow of funding for the terrorists, stressing the need for the UN to come in to trace and track it.

Read Also: NUPTE condemns 50 percent telecom tariff hike

The defence chief, who questioned how the insurgents had sustained themselves for 15 years, also fingered international conspiracy in providing the terrorists with funds, training and equipment. The CDS’ called on the international community for investigation at the wake of a new trick by Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists who are now deploying drones for surveillance ahead of launching attacks on security operatives. Responding to a question on why Boko Haram has kept regrouping despite the claims by the federal government that the sect has been degraded, the CDS said: “The problem is that I think we have talked to the international community. Let’s find out the funding. As we speak, over 120,000 Boko Haram members have surrendered, and most of them came with hard currency. How did they get it? How are they funded? How did they get the training? How did they get the equipment? “The UN needs to come in because we need to trace the funding. It is international flow, and we don’t have control over that,” he said.

There are at least 15 countries with active armed conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa in 2025: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. Eight are low-intensity, subnational armed conflicts, and seven were high-intensity armed conflicts (Nigeria, Somalia, the DRC, Burkina Faso, Mali, South Sudan and Cameroon). Almost all the armed conflicts were internationalized, including as a result of state actors (whether directly or through proxies) and the transnational activities of violent Islamist groups, other armed groups and criminal networks. The conflict dynamics and ethnic and religious tensions are often rooted in a combination of state weakness, corruption, ineffective delivery of basic services, competition over natural resources, inequality and a sense of marginalization. Two other cross-cutting issues continued to shape regional security: the ongoing internationalization of counter-terrorism activities, and the growing impact of climate change—with water scarcity being a particularly serious challenge.

On 9, January,2025, Chad’s capital city was still smarting after deadly gun battles erupted between security forces and more than a dozen armed fighters who brazenly stormed the presidential palace. At least 19 people were killed. The assault comes weeks after controversial parliamentary elections, in which opposition parties boycotted the vote. They accused President Mahamat Idriss Deby’s military-turned-civilian government of trying to legitimise his rule. The attack also followed Chad’s surprising expulsion of hundreds of French troops in December. France, a former colonial power and a close ally, has operated military bases in the country for decades. Boko Haram fighters have launched incursions into the country since 2013, operating from their base in the Lake Chad Basin, which Chad shares with Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon. But obviously, the French military was the major regime protection he had, not just by their force presence, but also intelligence sharing. The former French colony hosted France’s last military bases in the Sahel, but at the end of November, ended defence and security agreements with Paris, calling them “obsolete”. About 1,000 French military personnel were stationed in the country and are in the process of being withdrawn after France fell out with three other Sahelian countries governed by military governments hostile to Paris: Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.

• Donald writes via [email protected]