Nigeria: Seit Juli 2017 mehr als 320 Zivilisten getötet

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) warns not to underestimate the radical Islamist group Boko Haram in Nigeria or to rashly announce their defeat. “The Islamist fighters are still involved in considerable terrorist activities. At least 327 people have lost their lives in the Boko-Haram conflict in the north-east of Nigeria since July 2017. The violence is increasing – although the organization has split into two wings,” reported Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director, in Göttingen on Wednesday. “The group is weakened, but it is unlikely that it will disappear soon.”

This week, General Major and army spokesman John Enenche announced that Boko Haram had been defeated militarily, but that peace had not been achieved yet – and nowhere else in the world. According to the STP, the Boko-Haram conflict has claimed more than 2,000 lives in 2017. More than 23,000 people have lost their lives since the Islamic terrorist movement started their terrorist activities in 2009. 

Following three suicide attacks in the city of Mandarari (Borno) on Tuesday, the Nigerian government has decided to establish a 2000-strong special unit to take action against Boko Haram. 30 people were killed and 83 were injured in the attacks on a local market and a refugee camp. About 70 percent of the 340 suicide attacks since 2011 were committed by female attackers, and more than half of them were underage. The terrorist movement is increasingly sending women and children to carry out attacks, because it is easier for them to approach markets and other targets inconspicuously. At least 83 assassins lost their lives in suicide attacks in 2017.

Despite these frightening numbers, the Nigerian army is convinced that Boko Haram was defeated and that the group is about to disappear. “The army has repeatedly announced the death of Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, but he is still leading one of the wings of the terrorist movement,” said Delius. Another part of the fighters had gathered around Abu Musab al-Barnawi, who is close to the “Islamic State”.

Header Foto: European Commission DG ECHO via Flickr