The Epoch Times learned that Nigerian troops, the most populous state in Africa, are struggling to contain the ISIS Alliance’s invasion of Boko Haram in the burglary-prone northwestern state of Niger.
Governor Sanibello of Niger demanded an immediate counterattack by the military to ward off bandits and “elements of Boko Haram” who expelled 3,000 horrified civilians last week.
“Boko Haram has flagged Kauri!” The governor told the report on Monday morning at an IDP camp in the Shiroro municipal area.
“Their wives were confiscated from them and forced to attach themselves to members of Boko Haram,” said the governor. “They claim it to be their territory and use it the same way they used the Sambisa forest,” he said, a country where Boko Haram terrorists have fled to a hidden bunker for 11 years. Mentioned the vast dry shrublands of the northeastern part of the country.
“Still, the San Visa forest is hundreds of kilometers away, but Shiroro is only a two-hour drive from Abuja. Even Abuja is not safe,” he told the Channels TV TV crew.
The governor underestimated the mileage, but he raised legitimate concerns about national security, according to Kaduna’s independent reporter Luka Vinyat, who worked in Niger.
“Kauri is about 200 km from Abuja, but due to the rough roads, it takes less than four hours to reach Abuja,” Vinyat told The Epoch Times.
“The area flows through the continuous wilderness that crosses the Shiroro Valley into thousands of hectares of savanna, forests, and the Chikun region of Kaduna,” wrote Vinyat, who began mapping the western region of Kaduna. I am. Invasion of bandits and nomads and expulsion of Christian peasants.
“Already 12 major communities, mainly Christian ethnic groups forming Chikun LGA [local government area, an administrative unit similar to an American county] I was banished. As the governor said, if the outlaws were really Boko Haram, they might be occupying land close to the size of Abia, “Vignat wrote in an email in the Epoch Times. Nigeria’s state of Abia is about half the area of Connecticut, USA.
“The so-called Sambisa’forest’in Borno is not a true forest,” says reporter Vinyat. “It’s a vast area of perhaps 2000 square kilometers of Sahel shrubs dotted with thorn trees. There are no forests anywhere in Sambisa. The valleys are dry throughout the dry season.
“The most strategic advantage for Boko Haram is that Sambisa borders the Nigerian side of the dangerous mountain border with the Republic of Cameroon,” Vignat wrote. “But the newly acquired territory in Kaduna, which borders Niger, has even better prospects for terrorist groups.”
“The Shiroro Chikun Stretch is part of a tall evergreen savanna forest,” he writes. “It is provided by a perennial stream lined with thick forests. Many hills have hidden base caves. In addition, the Kaduna River runs through the area and armed groups have the advantage of using boats. That’s a terrifying outlook. “
According to London-based anti-terrorism consultant and Boko Haram expert David Otto, the relocation and establishment of the Boko Haram unit in partnership with a thief gang on a motorcycle with an AK47 will be a “kinetic game changer.” There is a possibility of becoming.
“There is an established Boko Haram unit in Niger, which is very serious and poses a direct and imminent threat to the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja,” Otto told The Epoch Times.
“It’s probably also the third stage of Boko Haram. What we don’t know yet is that it’s related to the Boko Haram faction in Abubakar Shekau, the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP), or a new independent faction. Whether or not, what is certain is that this jihadist group has a store too close for comfort to the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja — keeping dogs not only in Nigeria, but also in Nigeria’s territory. All entities, large and small, are concerned. “
The invasion of Boko Haram’s elements followed a military retreat against armed bandits when the army lost seven soldiers in a clash with intensified bandits three weeks ago. To the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The same week, troops were detained in Niger, and a violent rebellion against military authorities in the lush Benue province of south-central Nigeria killed 12 soldiers on April 5, followed by a punishment campaign against local militias. Was unleashed.
According to a military spokesman, Nigerian soldiers entered the state to end a joint clash between rival tribes, but a local armed group called the “Bonta Boys” ambushed the troops packed into the truck. And then the corpse, according to a military spokesman accused of doing everything and burning them.
Beginning April 6, Nigerian troops burned dozens of villages in the Tiv hometown and used bulldozers to create a fog of competing stories about what was really happening.
Nigerian authorities are solving multiple security issues at once, Otto told The Epoch Times. A new sector of the Boko Haram rebellion, a tribal rebellion in the median strip, and robbery in 14 states.
The war on terror across the region was defeated a week ago with news that President Idriss Dévi of Chad died after a battle with rebels. For thirty years, Chad’s authoritarian president, Debbie, has been an important ally in the fight to contain the rebels of the Islamic state in the region.
“This will take the state’s security architecture to an unimaginable level,” Otto said. “Chad is chaotic because Idriss Dévi is out of the picture. The Republic of Niger is tattered because the new administration is struggling to survive. Cameroon has problems in the northwest and southwest. I am.
“That is, Nigeria needs to think agnostically to address multiple threats, including a new jihadist group that has emerged right next to the capital of the world’s most populous black nation.” Otto writes.
“Effective counter-strategies must begin by returning to the blueprints for the design of a comprehensive and robust Nigeria national security strategy,” Otto added.