Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari complained on Tuesday that the war in Ukraine is flooding Africa’s Lake Chad region with arms and manpower for terrorist gangs, threatening the stability of the entire region.
Cameroon’s military recently killed and paraded the corpse of a Cameroonian separatist leader accused of perpetrating beheadings and other terror activities, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Monday, noting that the display of the terrorist’s lifeless body across villages bordering Nigeria served to deter potential recruits from joining separatist organizations.
Residents of the Nigerian village of Daban Masara claim dozens of civilians were killed in a Nigerian Air Force strike on Sunday. Some villagers said the strike deliberately targeted a civilian area because the Nigerian government had ordered the local fishing industry to shut down, on the grounds that Islamic State terrorists were profiting from the fishing trade.
Members of the Nigerian Islamic terror group Boko Haram have established close ties in neighboring Cameroon’s political and business circles in recent months, a Cameroonian government official said on December 18, Voice of America (VOA) reported over the weekend.
The Nigerian military has dismissed a Boko Haram video threatening to abduct and behead President Muhammadu Buhari as a “photoshop” and “complete joke,” claiming that Boko Haram no longer has the capacity for large-scale attacks and is merely trying to intimidate villagers into a distorted perception of their strength.
Nigeria may claim to have “won the war” against the Islamic State-affiliated terror organization Boko Haram, but for neighboring Chad and Niger, the battle rages on.
The four African countries bordering Lake Chad currently combating the Nigeria-based jihadist group Boko Haram will receive $40 million in humanitarian assistance from the United States, according to Samantha Power, the American ambassador to the United Nations.
A gruesome attack on villages near Lake Chad this week left 26 dead, as Boko Haram burned homes to the ground and slit the throats of anyone who stood in their way. The attack is the latest in a string of escalating violence in Nigeria and Chad exacerbated by Islamic State calls for more death during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Africans are slowly returning to Nigeria as Boko Haram continues to lose ground. But the task of repatriating is a challenging one: The neighboring NigerRepublic has begun deporting Nigerian refugees.
