From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-Boko Haram, a ghost-like jihadist insurgency in northeastern Nigeria, has killed more than 3,500 people over the past few years. Its fighters materialize, strike, then melt back into the population without a trace.
Two weeks ago, a battle between Boko Haram and the Nigerian military laid waste to Baga, a prosperous fishing town on Lake Chad in the far northeast. More than 180 people were killed and some 2,200 homes and businesses were destroyed, mostly as a result of the army's scorched-earth tactics.
It is tragic metaphor for the problems that besiege Africa's most populous country, where poverty, corruption, inept leadership, tribal animosities and a rising tide of jihadism reinforce one another and threaten to break apart the nation. This destructive cycle in Nigeria also fuels a growing regional jihadist movement that sends weapons and warriors across porous borders. The West considers it dangerous enough to warrant military intervention in Mali and the establishment of a U.S. Africa Command.
Nigeria is oil and resource rich, yet it wallows in poverty and violence. In 2009, the U.S. Agency for International Development released a damning report that said 138.6 million Nigerians, more than 90 percent of the country's population, live on less than $2 per day. Well over 70 percent live in absolute poverty. Worst off are those who live in the northern fringes, where Boko Haram is gaining ground and imposing sharia law in the territory it controls.
Read more:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/nigeria-under-siege-686365/#ixzz2SPinK3Fr
No comments:
Post a Comment