International Crisis Group

Mali crisis shines light on Nigeria’s shadowy insurgency | AFP via Channel News Asia

LAGOS: Mali’s struggle against Islamists now being targeted by French and African forces has raised fresh questions over an insurgency in nearby Nigeria and ties between extremists in both countries. 

Nigeria plans to send some 900 troops to Mali as well as command the African force being deployed there despite also dealing with violence back home by the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. 

While the Islamist advance in Mali has sparked international fears that it could become a safe haven for Al-Qaeda-linked militants and criminal gangs, many observers caution that Nigeria’s situation is vastly different. 

FULL ARTICLE (AFP via Channel News Asia)

Photo: United States Navy/Wikimedia Commons

from 10 Conflicts to Watch in 2013 | Foreign Policy

by Louise Arbour

Sahel: Mali, Nigeria, and beyond

Instability in the Sahel region of Africa increased on a number of fronts in 2012, and attempts to stem that trend will be high on many countries’ agendas in 2013. Mali — where a military coup toppled the government in March, while separatists and al Qaeda-linked fundamentalists took over the country’s north — tops the list of regional troubles.

The coming year will see both the rollout of a necessary international intervention in Mali, and possibly more important, a political process to reunify the country. On the former, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and the African Union have already approved a mission of 3,300 soldiers to help the Malian state wrest control of the northern part of the country from Islamist fighters, pending international endorsement of such a move by the U.N. Security Council.

Fear of an intervention without end has led to reluctance in many quarters about deploying an international force in the vast northern desert. But the risks of inaction are just as great. Getting boots on the ground will take some time, as will the desperately needed restructuring and training of Malian units by a separate EU mission.

On the political side, it is necessary to make sure that the process of reuniting the country is truly inclusive. Some of the groups controlling the north are clearly beyond the pale — they are terrorists, and they are not interested in coming to the negotiation table. Others may be more amenable to a deal. But much depends on the Malian government’s political and military leadership, which remains shaky after the interim prime minister was forced to resign by the military in December. The new and ostensibly more consensual prime minister might facilitate a national dialogue aimed at designing a roadmap to resolve Mali’s political crisis and organizing for elections in 2013. However, with the military coup leaders showing a worrying propensity to remain enmeshed in civilian political life, the country’s future remains uncertain.

The Sahel region also has another deeply worrying conflict in northern Nigeria, where the radical Islamist group Boko Haram has been blamed for thousands of deaths in recent years. The government’s response has been an uneven mix of confused talk about possible negotiations and heavy-handed, often indiscriminate, security efforts that may have aggravated the violence and sent more recruits into the hands of the extremists. Without concerted attention and a dramatic about-face in government policy, look for 2013 to be another bloody year in northern Nigeria.

FULL ARTICLE (Foreign Policy)

Photo: EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection/Flickr

Curbing Violence in Nigeria (I): The Jos Crisis

Dakar/Brussels  |   17 Dec 2012

Unless addressed immediately, recurrent violence in Nigeria’s Plateau state will continue to fuel settler-indigene tensions and exacerbate intercommunal strife across the country.

Curbing Violence in Nigeria (I): The Jos Crisis, the first in a series of International Crisis Group reports that examine insecurity in three regions of the country, explores the dynamics of violence in Plateau state since 2001. The ostensible dispute is over the “rights” of the predominately Christian Berom/Anaguta/Afizere (BAA) indigene groups and the rival claims of the Muslim Hausa-Fulani settlers to land, power and resources.

“Indigene-settler conflicts are not new to Nigeria, but the country is currently experiencing widespread intercommunal strife, which particularly affects Jos city, capital of Plateau state, in the Middle Belt region . Violence in Jos is defined and worsened by both local and national dynamics”, says Kunle Amuwo, Crisis Group’s West Africa Senior Analyst. “The failure of the ruling elite to address and resolve key issues such as citizenship, identity and political inclusion, has aggravated the situation”.

Conflicts have become more frequent and deadlier over the last eleven years, with about 4,000 people killed in several episodes of violence involving the BAA and Hausa-Fulani communities. More suffering can be expected if nothing is done to address the root causes of the tragedy.

Security further deteriorated in Jos from 2010 because of terror attacks and suicide bombings against churches and security targets by suspected militants of Boko Haram, the Islamist group responsible for unprecedented waves of terrorist attacks in the north.

Plateau state and the Middle Belt – which represents, roughly, the centre of the country – used to be a bridge between north and south. For a long time, its capital Jos mirrored the peaceful coexistence of Nigerians from different ethnic backgrounds. Cosmopolitanism, anchored in multi-ethnicity and multiple languages, formed a culture of tolerance and friendly relations between Muslims and Christians.

The crisis in Plateau requires both national and local solutions. Nigeria’s current conception and implementation of its citizenship question are inadequate and flawed. The way forward is for the National Assembly, via a referendum or by itself, following its nationwide public hearings, to replace the indigene principle with a more inclusive residency provision to fight discrimination and inequalities between settler and indigenous communities. The authorities must also take immediate steps to assuage the fears of ethnic minorities, including by prosecuting instigators and perpetrators of violence and stopping the illegal possession of firearms.

At the state level, the current Plateau government can no longer carry on as if it is in power to serve only indigenous communities. It should not wait for national constitutional reform before abolishing discriminatory policies on education and employment between indigenes and settlers.

“Nigeria has to move quickly to get to grips with the indigene-settler divide and the dysfunctional situation this has created in Jos and elsewhere”, says Gilles Yabi, Crisis Group’s West Africa Project Director. “Otherwise, political differences will harden further, more pain will be inflicted on the hapless population, and invariably, the country’s development will be impaired”.

FULL REPORT 

Global Post | Nigerian universities demand bribes for admission

By: Heather Murdock

ABUJA, Nigeria — Every year about 1 million Nigerian students pass college entrance exams, but the country’s universities can admit only 300,000.

The shortage of university places leaves most of Nigeria’s best students frustrated and uneducated, according to Kabir Mato, director of the Institute for Anti-Corruption Studies at the University of Abuja.

“There is a tremendous national crisis that is at hand,” Mato told GlobalPost. “At the end of the day, most of those boys and girls that have passed very well will not be accommodated and so they will grow hopeless.”

Mato said the inability of Nigeria’s 122 universities to take on most of their qualified applicants is a national security concern because it drives unemployed young people onto the streets and possibly into extremist groups like Boko Haram, which has killed 450 people so far this year with their protest bombings.

Many would-be students, however, say they are not interested in joining militias; they just want to get a good job. Mato said since many of Nigeria’s young people are unable to go to college, the economy also suffers from a lack of local innovation and educated employees.

Prospective university students say the fact that there are not enough university places is not nearly as frustrating as the corruption and nepotism of the application process.

FULL ARTICLE (Global Post)

Voice of America | Boko Haram Video Brings Threat to Nigerian Government ‘Doorstep’

A 14-minute YouTube video is heightening tensions between Nigeria’s government and a violent Islamist sect President Goodluck Jonathan has promised to destroy. Analysts say the video has revealed the president’s miscalculation of the extremist threat.

The YouTube video opens with graphics of spinning flowers and crossed AK-47s.  Bubble letters identify it as a message to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan made by the group that calls itself People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad, more commonly known as Boko Haram.

The group’s suspected leader, Abubakar Shekau, is seated with four armed and masked men. He tells viewers the Nigerian president was boasting two weeks ago when he said the government would destroy the group within three months.  

“We have sworn and we are telling you, Jonathan, that there is nothing that you can do to stop us,” Shekau says.

FULL ARTICLE (VOA)

Photo: VOA/YouTube