Nigeria, 200 Boko Haram soldiers killed. But country remains in a maze

Chad army have entered in Nigeria to fight Boko Haram troops, after the beginning of the mission in Camerun on January. The outgoing president Goodluck could win presidential election on 14th February

[subscriptionform]
[level-european-affairs]
200 Boko Haram militants were died on 3rd February in Northern Nigeria by Chadian troops. The previous blitz was in Camerun on 31st January, when N’Djamena armed force killed 123 Islamist guerrilla fighters. Actions which have received the Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s approval, who quite agree with the composition of a military force of 7,500 units, under the auspices of the African Union, to fight the advance of the Caliphate of Abubakar Shekau.

Looting and destruction of villages, mass murders: are a costant course, which aims to become stable in the Borno State (Northern Nigeria), despite the failure to conquer the capital Maiduguri, and expanding borders of the Caliphate in Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

The Shekau’s strategy from August till today recalls the scheme of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria declared by al Baghdadi. The affiliation of Califfate to Isis, the creation of a semistatal being, the use of the same flag, the reading the Koran in a mosque by the leader, the prisoners dressed in orange clothes. These are some of the most recognizable signs of a rapprochement with the funding allocated by Sunni organizaton, which wants to enlist new Islamic fundamentalists to expand its brand across the Arab world.

Boko Haram chose the Borno State because is the poorest and most underdeveloped in Nigeria. Instead, the Southern is growner than Northern due of oil field, but also the most corrupt. And before 2014, Sharia was in effect in the Northern, where Nigerian army’s not working as Chadian troops.

Conversely, outgoing president Jonathan Goodluck and all political elite keep quite. But the terror tactics of Boko Haram is promoting the chief of state’s re-election next on 14th February. In this instance, a new precedent would open for Lagos: a Christian church second consecutive term clashing with Muslim faction.

Giacomo Pratali

[/level-european-affairs]