ADF

ADF STAFF As Boko Haram saw its territorial gains recede in the face of military operations, the Islamic insurgent group began to turn to asymmetric tactics, namely suicide bombers. That, in itself, is not particularly unusual for terrorists. Using women and children is. Jason Warner and Hilary Matfess of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point wrote about this tactic in “Exploding Stereotypes: The Unexpected Operational and Demographic Characteristics of Boko Haram’s Suicide Bombers.” Their study shows that from April 11, 2011, to June 30, 2017, Boko Haram sent 434 bombers to 247 targets in 238 separate attacks. Of these…

U.S. Africa Command Staff While most of the world was not watching, Boko Haram grew to become the deadliest terror organization on earth. The group was responsible for 6,664 deaths and held sway over 30,000 square kilometers in northeast Nigeria in 2014. Its goal was to establish a caliphate that would last for centuries. Instead of waiting for intervention from outside, countries in the region joined forces to fight back. In 2014, the nations of the Lake Chad Basin activated the Multinational Joint Task Force, a 10,000-person military effort to defeat Boko Haram. The next year, Nigeria changed its national…

October 1 remains a special date for all Nigerians as this marks the day when we attained one of the most precious of human desires — freedom. Over the years the country has gone through trials and tribulations, but October 1 is always a day for celebrations. It is a day for thanksgiving, reflection and rededication. On security, Nigerians must be grateful to our gallant Armed Forces for rolling back the frontiers of Boko Haram’s terrorism, defeating them, and reducing them to cowardly attacks on soft and vulnerable targets. Nigeria is grateful to its neighbors and the international community for…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Malawi has successfully concluded a two-year project to move 520 sedated elephants to a reserve where the animals had been nearly wiped out by poaching. In one of the biggest-ever wildlife translocations, in August 2017 the elephants were transported 350 kilometers by truck from two southern parks to the Nkhotakota reserve in the center of the country. “We have taken extraordinary measures to secure a future for Malawi’s elephants and at the same time are helping people who live around these critically important wild areas,” said Brighton Kumchedwa of the National Parks Department. The elephant population in Nkhotakota…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE In most countries, health ministers are seen as bureaucrats more interested in paperwork than medical miracles. But in Madagascar, Mamy Lalatiana Andriamanarivo recently picked up a scalpel and separated conjoined twins in a medical first for the island nation. The surgery was performed at the Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona hospital on September 13, 2017, to separate twins joined at the abdomen and lower thorax, said Jean Marie Rasamimanana, deputy technical director at the hospital in the capital Antananarivo. “The separation of the 5-month-old twins, Mitia and Fitia, who weighed 13 kilograms and were delivered by caesarian section, involved the…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE In Benin’s economic capital of Cotonou, as in many other African cities, finding a house, office or restaurant is often like a treasure hunt. Luck, if not a miracle, is required because street names and address numbers usually are not posted. Most people in Cotonou use complex combinations of landmarks and directions to navigate town. Sam Agbadonou, a 34-year-old former medical technician, knows the frustration. “I was called when there were breakdowns and went to health centers to repair machines that save lives,” he said. “But some centers are really in the middle of outlying neighborhoods, and it…

Nigerian and Regional Efforts Helped Turn the Tide Against the Insurgent Group ADF STAFF Boko Haram has left its mark in blood and destruction across Nigeria and in neighboring countries. The Islamist militant group has killed more than 20,000 people since emerging as a dangerous terrorist force in 2009. Its catalog of destruction almost defies description. The catastrophic impact is nowhere more evident than in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State. Its economic and social devastation is difficult to calculate, and yet a state government official released a tally of the losses in August 2017 in Maiduguri. Yerima Saleh, Borno State’s permanent…

The Commander of a Regional Force Believes Stability and Peace Will Brighten the Future of the Lake Chad Basin ADF STAFF Nigerian Army Maj. Gen. Lucky Irabor is commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) headquartered in N’Djamena, Chad. From 2016 to 2017 he served as theater commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Nigeria’s military mission to defeat Boko Haram. A signals officer, he has served in numerous peacekeeping missions including the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group in Sierra Leone. He also served as 3 Division Signal Brigade commander in Nigeria’s northeast and, at the direction of…

The Multinational Joint Task Force Shows the Strengths and Limits of Collective Security Action ADF STAFF With an ability to hop across borders and exploit weak spots in the four countries surrounding Lake Chad, Boko Haram took advantage of a divided region to gain strength. The affected countries decided there was only one way to tackle this problem: Join forces. The result was the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a 10,500-person regional military effort designed to stamp out Boko Haram once and for all. The MNJTF was established by the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) in 1998 to fight highway banditry and other…

Diffa State launched a program to reintegrate insurgents and bring peace to its villages. ADF STAFF The need for DDR — disarmament, demobilization and reintegration — of surrendering insurgents is as old as warfare itself. Rebels grow tired of fighting, they surrender to their victors, and they go through a process of rehabilitation before returning to society. In the case of Boko Haram insurgents, DDR is particularly complex. It can include not just surrendering fighters, but their wives and children, as well as former hostages. Boko Haram also has an extremist ideology with fighters vowing to destroy the state and…