LAGOS, Nigeria (TheBlaze/AP) — The pastor would not renounce his Christian faith so the Islamic extremists slit his throat.
High school students were taking exams in defiance of the militants of Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden.” So the gunmen mowed them down at their desks.
The group that Nigeria’s government has declared a prohibited terrorist organization “declared war” last week on vigilante youths who have been arresting suspects and handing them over to soldiers fighting to crush the insurgency in the northeast part of Africa’s most populous nation and the continent’s biggest oil producer.
Clearly, the situation is dire.
The radical group that once attacked only government institutions and security forces is increasingly targeting civilians. Some 155,000 square kilometers (60,000 square miles) of Nigeria are now under a state of emergency.
Nigerian soldiers patrol in the north of Borno state close to a Islamist extremist group Boko Haram former camp on June 5, 2013 near Maiduguri. Nigeria’s military yesterday disclosed details of its offensive against Islamist militants, describing a series of events that saw insurgents take control of a remote area before being pushed out by soldiers. Credit: AFP/Getty Images
“Today, there are no boundaries and they are targeting the civilian population in a way that shows Nigeria is at a dangerous turning point,” said Comfort Ero, Africa program director for the International Crisis Group.
A month-long military crackdown by a joint force of troops and police, including bombing raids with fighter jets and helicopter gunships, has broken up militant camps but succeeded only in chasing the fighters into scrubby mountains from which they launch attacks on cities and towns, under the noses of the soldiers.
The government has described the change in tactics as an “end-game strategy” of a movement near collapse. But recent attacks indicate otherwise.
The Blaze
No comments:
Post a Comment