UN pledge to help Nigeria defeat Boko Haram

Ahmed Adel

The United Nations and the European Union have pledged the necessary support to the Nigerian state to defeat Boko Haram terrorists in the Lake Chad area.

This came during the visit of Mohamed Ibn Chambas, head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel, on Thursday, November 21 to the capital of Nigeria’s Borno State, Maiduguri, where he met with senior military commanders at the headquarters of Operation Lafiya Dole, which aims to clear the remaining Boko Haram terrorists from the Lake Chad Basin area.

The European Union and the United Nations are providing financial and military assistance to stop the advance of Boko Haram terrorists across the Lake Chad area, Ibn Chambas told the Security Council.

Ibn Chambas said that the United Nations and the European Union assigned him to form a partnership and mobilize support for the efforts of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger in the fight against terrorism in West Africa, explaining that the mandate would fight, defeat and eliminate terrorism in any form in the Lake Chad Basin states.

The United Nations supports the courageous efforts of the Nigerian armed forces to completely eliminate Boko Haram and other terrorist groups that may be in Borno or any other states in the northeast, Ibn Chambas said, acknowledging that Boko Haram has many evil intentions, as it carries out crimes and kills civilians in an attempt to show the weakness of the Nigerian troops before the public.

Boko Haram is part of the international terror network condemned by the whole world, Ibn Chambas said, adding that on this basis, the United Nations always affirms that this battle against Boko Haram and other groups in Borno and the surrounding area is not a battle for Nigeria and its armed forces alone, but is for the safety of the world as a whole. He called on the international community to come together to stop the advance of these armed groups.

Ibn Chambas emphasized the desirable cooperation between the United Nations and the European Union with the Nigerian armed forces and government, pointing out that Nigeria’s successes are global successes in the fight against the terrorism of Boko Haram. He urged the military leadership to continue to rely on the support of the United Nations and the European Union in the war against the terrorist group.

Boko Haram was founded in January 2002 by Mohammed Yusuf, who was executed by the Nigerian police in 2009, but the terrorist group has increased its activity and carried out several terrorist operations in recent years.

After Yusuf was killed, Abubakar Shekau took over the group’s leadership. Shekau developed the strategy to kidnap girls from school, claiming that girls were created for marriage rather than for learning, and he also increased the use of suicide operations.

This lasted until March 2015, when Shekau pledged allegiance to former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed by the United States in October 2019.

Boko Haram is largely in control of the Lake Chad region, namely Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Benin and the Central African Republic. However, Nigerian forces have recently been trying to counter the pro-ISIS group’s increased attacks. Together with the multinational G5 Sahel forces, Nigerian forces have been able to make several blows to the group, leading to internal unrest within Boko Haram following the death of Mamman Nur in 2018.

Since its inception, terrorist attacks by Boko Haram have so far killed nearly 30,000 people and displaced millions in Nigeria.

Africa affairs researcher Nasser Maamoun Issa said the visit came in an attempt to boost the morale of Nigerian soldiers fighting the Boko Haram group, which is expanding its activities to the West African region as a whole.

The visit proved to Nigeria that the international community stands behind the Nigerian army to stop the advance of these radical groups, Issa told the Reference.

Issa added that it is necessary for the Lake Chad region states to join forces within the framework of intelligence, coordination and ways to combat Boko Haram.