Boko Haram kills 21 in separate attacks in Nigeria

At least 21 people have been killed in two separate attacks by Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists on two villages in northeast Nigeria. "They [Boko Haram militants] killed 12 people in Akida village and nine others in Mbuta village during a raid," community leader, Mustapha Abbagini, said on Friday. Witnesses said the Takfiri militants also destroyed shops and homes near the key city of Maiduguri on Thursday morning. Abbagini also said Boko Haram militants attacked Akid, located some 25 kilometers (some 15.5 miles) from Maiduguri, early Thursday when villagers were asleep. He added that the terrorists attacked Mbuta after they set homes and businesses on fire. The two attacks came before a female terrorist in northern Nigeria detonated explosives at a crowded market place in the city of Biu, which is plagued by Boko Haram violence. At least seven were killed.

As the war against Boko Haram intensifies, the perception that it is wedged by disaffected and jobless youths who oppose and hate Western Education is becoming pedestrian. The sophistication of the command and operational structures of Boko Haram leaves no one in doubt about this reality.    The weapons deployed to commit the ongoing pogrom appear to have been acquired and brought to the war zones through a complicated network. It is hard to believe that a conflict of this magnitude can occur without a complex network of individuals and organizations supporting Boko Haram’s criminal war effort. It may be reasonably suggested that it is a political establishment serving distinct interests in Nigeria and Cameroon. In Nigeria, it has never sought ransom for the many victims it has abducted. In Cameroon although officially classified as a nebulous or illusive enemy, it has turned abduction for ransom into a lucrative business. 

Boko Haram in Nigeria is a child of Nigerian history and the impunity of Northern Nigeria’s Military establishment. Armed conflict is part of Nigeria history. It is also a business which has enriched many.  People including generations unborn learn from history. The savaged brutality meted on civilians and civilian objects in Nigeria pre-exist Boko Haram. These acts of impunity were some of the methods deployed by successive military regimes, most of them from Northern Generals to accede and sustain power. The ongoing slaughter by Boko Haram follows the same pattern which in 1966 led to the Nigeria/Biafra War. The underlying cause of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Southerners, mainly of the Ibo ethnic groups in the North was never comprehensively investigated, if at all.  There is no gainsaying that had the crimes been investigated, the result would have pointed to some powerful individuals within the Nigerian Military structure of Northern origin. For these, political power and control of the economy could only be attained through scapegoating communities whom they perceived as serious competitors.