Reports by one of the leading global human rights organisations, Human Rights Watch, that at least 2,800 people have been killed since the onset of the Boko Haram-led insurrection in the West African country of Nigeria are evidence of the scale of the humanitarian tragedy currently pervading Northern Nigeria.
In its Report, the organisation stated that both the Nigerian security authorities and the militant group were complicit in the commission of crimes against humanity. According to Human Rights Watch some of the attacks carried out since the commencement of the conflict bore the characteristics of “deliberate acts leading to population ‘cleansing’ based on religion or ethnicity”. In case the participants in the conflict need to be reminded, offenders charged with crimes against humanity can be prosecuted before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
The Report attributes the killings of Muslim clerics critical of the group’s activities and innocent Christians to Boko Haram and at the same time blames the Nigerian authorities for “physical abuse, secret detentions, extortion, burning of houses, stealing money during raids, and extrajudicial killings of suspects”. Although the leadership of Boko Haram is yet to respond to the conclusions of the report, the government, via its spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, denied that it had been involved in the ‘culture of impunity for violence’ which the report imputes to it. Lieutenant Colonel Musa averred: “There is no established or recorded case of extrajudicial killing, torture, arson or arbitrary arrest by the JTF (Nigeria’s joint military and police taskforce) in Borno state”.
Followers of global affairs and passive observers alike will note that the Islamist sect has waged a three-year long campaign against the government with the aim of establishing an Islamic state and in effect seceding from the country. Boko Haram are also rumoured to be backed by Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militia and Al-Qaeda who have of recent successfully made inroads – see Mali and Mauritania – into the Western region of Africa. Boko Haram’s notoriety and initial successes were of such significance that a United States Congressional Panel was established to address the threat posed by the group.
The government’s initial lackadaisical and disjointed attempts at dealing with the menace have now been replaced with a joint army and military crackdown commensurate with its opponent’s might. It has successfully conducted raids on areas within the northern part of the country, the region predominantly populated by Nigeria’s Muslims and which is effectively the group’s stomping ground. The group’s bases have been routed, its fighters arrested and some of its figureheads killed following the reinvigoration of the government’s campaign against the militancy. The killing of the group’s spokesman Abu Qaqa by the authorities in a gun battle last month against the authorities was just the news which the country’s beleaguered leader needed to placate critics who have lambasted the lack of urgency he has shown in his handling of the situation.
The Nigerian government at least acknowledges that military engagement on its own will not be sufficient to usher in the peace and tranquillity which previously reigned in the now tumultuous region of Northern Nigeria. To this end it has attempted to engage Boko Haram by way of negotiations in order to achieve an impasse in the dispute. However, Boko Haram’s continued demands for the full implementation of Sharia law in the whole of Northern Nigeria has put paid to hopes that a non-military solution to the troubles can be achieved in the circumstances. Aside highlighting the human tragedy pervading in the warring region at present, the Report does well to remind the protagonists in the conflict of the accountability which awaits them at the International Criminal Court after the war has been won and lost.
