Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has vowed to defeat militant group Boko Haram, after a series of attacks blamed on the group in recent weeks.
Earlier on Thursday, at least 10 people were injured by a suicide bomber near a church in Gombe, north-east Nigeria.
On Wednesday, 11 people were killed when a bomb went off on a bus heading from Gombe to neighbouring Yobe state.
Mr Jonathan said the group had caused “agony” in the country. They killed at least 2,000 civilians in 2014.
This BBC report needs to be read alongside a report in the NYT (in today’s international version) about growing scepticism about the capabilities of Nigeria’s army, and tensions with the US military who have been trying to train the Nigerians to a higher standard. Bottom line: the army command is corrupt, the soldiers poorly led and under-equipped, in the article referred to in the NYT it is said that they are afraid to engage. Sad, but true. When an American general arrived to visit the Nigerian base where American trainers were working with a new elite group of Nigerian military, he was refused entrance at the gate. My fear is that within the next few years Nigeria will become another failed state like Pakistan, and will disintegrate, with chaos the result. Sorry to be pessimistic but that is a realistic assessment. Fortunately, realists are often proved wrong by the ability of the human spirit to tackle iniquities and weaknesses.
If that is the case Terry Tee then that corruption is the real issue which must be addressed. Our training in counter-insurgency in the 1980s emphasised that insurgencies always arise as a result of injustices and problems within the subject state. Identifying these and putting in place political solutions will be a significant part of the resolution of the insurgency.