Borno massacre: Nigeria needs to change tactics

THE attention of the world has again unfortunately been turned to Borno State following Sunday’s heinous and horrific attacks by Boko Haram terrorists that left over 40 innocent farmers dead. The attacks also left scores missing and others wounded. This is another carnage at the beginning of a new year. Nigeria needs to silence Boko Haram and its splinter groups, give justice to the victims, and resettle the displaced citizens.

This massacre is too much for a state just coming out of the rapacious flood caused by the Alau Dam collapse barely four months ago. That flood disaster affected one million persons, claimed 30 lives, displaced 414,000, affected 23,000 households, destroyed billion naira worth of properties and submerged 70 per cent of the capital, Maiduguri.

The fresh slaughter occurred in Dumba in Kukawa Local Government Area.

Media reports said Boko Haram insurgents attacked the victims in their farms in broad daylight (around 3 pm). A survivor, Adam Yusuf, said, “Their leaders told us that we (farmers) were serving as informants of the military by exposing their hideouts and movement within the general areas. We should be talking about 70 and above (that were killed). We were more than a thousand assembled. The operation lasted for almost three hours.”

It is disturbing that the insurgents will operate for hours without a firm response from the security forces. Boko Haram has exploited this remiss since it began its bloody crusade to overthrow the Nigerian state in 2009. Similarly, it stole 276 Chibok schoolgirls in Borno in April 2014 and 110 Dapchi schoolgirls in Yobe in February 2018.

On other fronts, bandits, Fulani herdsmen and Lakurawa terrorists are devastating lives and property in the North-West, North-Central, and other regions of the country.

The UN reported 350,000 killings by Boko Haram as of June 2021, mostly women and children. A 2023 report by UNICEF estimated the economic cost of the Boko Haram insurgency at $100 billion. The insurgents, who campaign against Western education and belief in a narrow form of Islam, have disrupted schooling, agriculture, and social life. They attack economic assets, disrupt communication, and vandalise energy assets.

Another survivor of the Dumba attacks said the farmers usually obtained permission from the insurgents to farm, “but these people (the victims) didn’t get clearance from the Boko Haram terrorists. So, they considered them as informants.”

The massacre demonstrates the failure of the state to protect its people. It shows that Boko Haram and bandits are still in control of territories within Nigeria. At the height of its conquest under Goodluck Jonathan, Boko Haram seized 27 LGAs in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

The comments by the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, that the victims ventured beyond the “demarcated land for safe farming and economic activities” and that “citizens should not enter areas prone to terrorist attacks or contaminated by landmines” cannot explain away government’s failure to secure its territory and people. No part of any state should be left ungoverned.

While it is sensible that the people should farm in safe zones, it should shame any responsible government that its citizens will “get clearance from the Boko Haram terrorists” before they can farm. This is fallible logic in a country where people are experiencing biting hunger and hardship.

The Dumba incident is not isolated. It occurred barely 24 hours after two people were killed and a church set ablaze in the southern part of the state. Did the incident happen in an unsafe territory? Another report indicates that the Kukawa area has suffered three devastating attacks by Boko Haram since 2014. In a pre-dawn ambush in Damboa on January 5, Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists slaughtered six soldiers returning to base. The military said it killed 34 insurgents in return.

The 2024 Cadre Harmonise indicates in its Joint Review Meeting on Implementation of the Food Systems in Nigeria in August that 31.8 million Nigerians are suffering from acute food insecurity compounded by malnutrition among women and children. The effect is worse in the North-East which has been under the grip of terrorists for over one decade.

The North-East is the epicentre of insurgency. In its July-September 2023 Round 46 assessment, Displacement Tracking Matrix (Nigeria) reports that IDPs were identified in 472,239 households in North-East Nigeria. DTM estimated that as of April last year, a total of 1,302,443 internally displaced persons were recorded in 219,445 households across Benue, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto and Zamfara states.

The government must deliver security to the people to enable them to live normal lives. The social and economic implications of these displacements are alarming.

In a 2021 report, the UNDP warned that if the current investment deficit in development in the North-East is not addressed, conflict in the region could cost Nigeria 1.1 million lives by 2030. This is ominous.

Boko Haram and other insurgent groups receive their sophisticated weapons through the porous borders. The Institute for Security Studies lists Nigeria as the “biggest illicit firearms market” in the West Africa sub-region.

It says the country accounts for 70 per cent of the 500 million illegal weapons in West Africa. The 2024 Global Terrorism Index rates Nigeria eighth out of 163 countries while the Global Fragile Index ranks the country 15th out of 179 countries. The National Bureau of Statistics’ Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey report released in December estimates crime incidents in the country in 2024 at 51.89 million.

The security agencies, including the police, the self-styled Department of State Service, the National Intelligence Agency, the Immigration, and the Customs must bring actionable intelligence to the table and share as appropriate to tame the prolonged Islamic insurgency.

The military has engaged in rings of bombardments to subdue the insurgents. However, the escalation of attacks despite ongoing air strikes is a sign that terrorism is deeply entrenched in the country and that air strikes alone are not enough to win the war. The military must review its strategy and adopt a comprehensive approach to fight the insurgents.

There is no alternative to the adoption of technology to police the forests, man the porous borders and secure the villages and towns.

President Bola Tinubu needs to play his role as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces by giving targets to the National Security Adviser and the security chiefs. It is simplistic of the President to think the military is well-equipped to end the Islamic insurgency with the current tactics and strategies. Tinubu should renew Nigeria’s collaboration with its neighbours in the northern flank since Niger Republic, Chad and Cameroon are in the same boat as Nigeria.

That Nigeria needs to develop local capacity to complement arms importation to fight insurgency cannot be overstated. Iran adopted the option when it was denied missiles. That country mobilised its professionals and academics to develop and produce arms and ammunition locally.

It is unthinkable that a portion of the country’s forest jointly owned by Niger, Cameroon and Chad would be declared unsafe in a world where intelligence, technology and global collaboration have been deployed by other countries to overpower and flush out terrorists. Nigeria must collaborate with its neighbours to make the Lake Chad area free and habitable.