ICC Note: Some of the top government and military brass in Nigeria are saying now that success or failure in defeating Boko Haram by President Muhammadu Buhari’s December deadline depends on how you define “defeat.” They cite that the military has successfully dislodged the militant Islamist terror group from most of the territory it controlled within the last year. Still, Boko Haram may be just as dangerous as ever, using young girls as suicide bombers targeting civilian populations as well as perpetuating insecurity in Nigeria’s northeastern states, especially where Christian-majority communities exist. Boko Haram represents the most deadly persecutor of the Church worldwide in the past five years, killing more Christians in West Africa than any other persecutor anywhere.
By Chris Stein
12/10/15 Lagos, Nigeria (VOA News) – Earlier this year, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari gave his country’s military a deadline of December to defeat the six-year-old Boko Haram insurgency.
Whether the troops have met that deadline depends on how you define “defeat.”
A military spokesman says soldiers have pushed the insurgents out of territory they controlled in the northeast, as well as degraded their ability to stage large-scale attacks.
Some residents of the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, say they feel safer; but, soldiers who spoke to VOA say they’re ill-equipped and outgunned, while a government official in Borno State says some areas remain unsafe.
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