Amnesty International (AI), a global human rights organisation, last Monday said the resurgence in Boko Haram attacks and suicide bombings in Nigeria has left over 381 civilians dead since April 2017, with casualty figures more than doubling those of the previous five months. It said the same of Cameroon.
Here: “Boko Haram is once again committing war crimes on a huge scale, exemplified by the depravity of forcing young girls to carry explosives with the sole intention of killing as many people as they possibly can.
“This wave of shocking Boko Haram violence, propelled by a sharp rise in suicide bombings, highlights the urgent need for protection and assistance for millions of civilians in the Lake Chad region. Governments in Nigeria, Cameroun and beyond must take swift action to protect them from this campaign of terror,†Amnesty International’s Director for West and Central Africa, Alioune Tine, stated in a statement.
Truth is that AI has not said anything new or what an average Nigerian does not know already. What it has failed to say or refused to acknowledge is that the resolve to relish in sheer propaganda as against tackling the scourge head-on is the reason the anti-social group appears to be gaining upper hands.
It is sad to note that more men of the Nigerian military had died in recent time than the figures recorded in the previous administration. Yet, all the government has always been interested in is the narrative that goes out there, because it never wanted to appear as failing the people in this war on terror.
The one point scored by the AI revelation is that it confirmed that the Boko Haram sect was still very much on the prowl. Importantly, it is a wakeup call for the government to review strategy and adopt that which best contains the menace posed by this ungodly group. Government can actually do better than it is doing now if only it concentrates more on the battlefield as against propaganda.
