Will Nigerian army write end of Boko Haram in 2021?

Shaimaa Hafezy

The Nigerian authorities are seeking to break the Boko Haram terrorist group, while the terrorist organization has raised the ceiling of its operations recently, amid expectations that the year 2021 will be difficult for the country in this confrontation.

At the end of January 2021, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari made a surprise change in the army leadership and issued a decision to replace senior military officials after several months of pressure because of the deteriorating security situation in the country and the army receiving a series of painful strikes.

Boko Haram has been active in northeastern Nigeria for more than ten years.

In a statement, the Nigerian presidency said that Buhari accepted the immediate resignation of the army chiefs, referring to the Chief of Staff and the commanders of the Air Force, Army and Navy, and the appointment of new commanders, including General Leo Irabor as the Chief of Defense Staff and General Ibrahim Attahiru in the army command.

Operations by Boko Haram have increased during the recent period. During the Christmas holidays, dozens of loggers were kidnapped and 11 people were killed while a priest was kidnapped, and last month, gunmen kidnapped hundreds of students in the northwestern state of Katsina before they were released at a later time.

At the beginning of the new year, Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ protection assistant after setting up an ambush on a highway in Borno state.

The terrorists are increasingly targeting farmers in the northeast of the country, accusing them of passing on information to the army. The seriousness of the situation that makes the army’s mission difficult lies in the transformation of the organization’s performance from operating as a rebel group carrying out operations in secret to overt and adopting ISIS’s method of controlling weapons and ammunition, in addition to announcing their operations, filming them, and broadcasting video clips of killings, slaughtering, and kidnappings.

Search for a solution

More than five years ago, President Buhari, upon coming to power in the 2015 elections, pledged to crush the rebellion in northeastern Nigeria, but it seems that after all this time the army is still suffering in its war against the terrorists, who are expanding operations on the ground, especially since Boko Haram adopted the policy of ISIS and followed its terrorist methods.

For nearly a decade, the Nigerian army has been fighting an armed rebellion launched by the Boko Haram terrorist group, which has resulted in the deaths of at least 36,000 people and the displacement of more than two million, in addition to the great devastation it has inflicted in many areas in the northeast of the country.

In an attempt to quell massive criticism from the opposition, Nigerian government officials assert that the new year will write the end for the terrorist organization.

In remarks at the beginning of 2021, Nigerian Minister of Defense Major General Bashir Salihi Magashi said that the war on the terrorist group will end this year, while General Irabor pledged to eliminate Boko Haram. The army commander said during a meeting of the leadership with the security forces in the town of Maiduguri in Borno that they will tighten the screws on the terrorist group.

Meanwhile, Borno Governor Babagana Umara Zulum urged strong cooperation with the armies of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and neighboring countries to get rid of Boko Haram, calling on the army to continue combating terrorists and tightening the noose on them by closing all roads and preventing them from moving from one region to another.