US Envoy Says Boko Haram Firmly In Control

By Fola James

John Campbell, a former U.S ambassador to Nigeria, has disclosed that Boko Haram still controls swathe of areas in the north despite claims by the Nigerian military that the terror group has been degraded.

Last week, Tukur Burutai, the chief of Army Staff, met President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock, Presidential Villa where he told the president that his troops have killed over one thousand members of the group.

The Army boss relocated to Borno state, two months ago after the Abubakar Shekau led group stepped up attacks in the north east.

But Campbell said the nation’s security forces are struggling to contain the deadly terrorists, in a piece he wrote on the US Foreign relations website two days ago.

The foreign relations expert said the terrorists also believed that Corona virus is a punishment from Allah against Nigeria, adding that Boko Haram is not prepared for any truce with the federal government.

According to him” Boko Haram factions have rejected the notion of a truce with the Nigerian government, which they see as an agency of evil.

Jihadi rhetoric portrays the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, as God’s punishment of their enemies.

There is no credible information about the presence of the virus among jihadis themselves.”

He stated that communal violence and other security problems across the country has stretch the police and other security bodies to the limit, adding that COVID 19 and the economic situation has made things worse, leaving criminals, including cattle rustlers and bandits to operate unhindered in most part of the country.

The corona virus “pandemic”, Campbell stated “and the economic consequences of fighting it have exacerbated – but did not cause- the nationwide erosion of security.

The Nigerian army was already overstretched before the arrival of COVID-19, with the country beset by conflict in the northeast, where Boko Haram is active.

The confrontation over land and water has driven intercommunal attacks, and kidnappings and cattle-rustling operations have increased.”

The Armed forces have been overstretched, he said.

Campbell “The army is stationed in nearly all of Nigeria’s thirty-six states, in many cases doing the work of police forces, which are poorly trained, overstretched, and under-resourced.”