ICC Note: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has fired top Nigerian military chiefs as Boko Haram attacks have become more frequent and more intensified since he took office. Buhari ran on a campaign to “get tough on Boko Haram,” but since his inauguration, Boko Haram has increased the scale of its attacks, raiding a Nigerian village at an almost daily rate. Along with criticism for failure to topple Boko Haram, the Nigerian military has also been accused of human rights abuses, which the president has promised to investigate.
7/14/15, Nigeria (DW) – The senior officers sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari had been appointed in January 2014 by his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan when he replaced other service chiefs over their failure to halt the Boko Haram insurgency.
There has been a rapid increase in suicide bombing in attacks in recent weeks, not only in Nigeria but also in neighboring countries. Nigerian conflict resolution analyst Anminu Gamawa told DW’s Hausa service that this had shown that “there is a need for a new approach, a need for new people with new ideas and that could not happen if he were to retain the service chiefs appointed by his predecessor.”
Buhari, who has been in power for less than seven weeks, made the announcement on Monday (13.07.2015) as details emerged of a suspected Boko Haram attack on two villages, Kalwa and Gwollam, in Borno state on Friday in which dozens of people were killed and houses were burnt down.
The militants also launched their first suicide bomb attack in neighboring Cameroon when two women blew themselves up. DW’s correspondent in Cameroon, Moki Kindzeka, said the dead included ten civilians, one Chadian soldier and the two bombers. The attack took place near the military base in the border town of Fotokol.
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