This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/6843

Chad And Cameroon Move to Retake Nigerian Town Of Baga, President Jonathan Befuddled

January 20, 2015

January 19, 2015 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org – Nigeria is probably the least effective of any major African country when it comes to maintaining internal security. The blame for this can be laid squarely at the feet of President Goodluck Jonathan who has done little to defeat the brutal jihad which has been waged against the oil-rich nation by the Muslim terror group Boko Haram over the last 5 years.

Though hard figures are impossible to determine, a rough body count would indicate that over 13,000 have been killed since the beginning of last year, and a similar number seriously wounded in Abubakar Shekau's bloody campaign to create an African caliphate operating under the Shari'a.

As stated in our January 11 piece, Boko Haram Massacre In Baga, Nigeria - Thousands Feared Killed , the group recently killed approximately 2,000 in its most brazen attack so far:

"Over the last 5 days, Boko Haram has carried out what is believed to be the worst massacre in its bloody history. The carnage took place in the town of Baga [former population 20,000] located in Northern Borno State, Nigeria. Borno is the geographical power base of the rebel army and though Baga was nominally under the protection of a "multinational" military base, the town was razed to the ground and many of its residents murdered as soldiers fled the onrushing terrorists.

Desertion in the face of Boko Haram attacks has become the norm throughout the country as the central government of Goodluck Jonathan has proved unwilling to resist the group militarily. There have been rampant complaints by Nigerian security forces that they lack even the most basic supplies with which to engage the enemy. Reports abound of units being sent into battle without rifles and/or ammunition, which has caused protests by the soldier's wives who refuse to allow their men to be fed into the meat grinder with no means of defense.

Though the country supposedly has some main battle tanks [many of which are older than the average soldier] APCs and field artillery there is little evidence that this hardware has been widely employed when confronting a better armed, far more highly motivated enemy. Dispatches coming from the Jonathan government have zero credibility because it's been caught lying far too often. Unbelievably, it's claimed on at least three different occasions to have killed terror leader Abubakar Shekau only for him to subsequently appear in mocking videos seeming none the worse for wear. Shekau has also used these videos to directly threaten the United States…"

In keeping with his policy of "leading" by doing nothing at all, President Obama has refused to provide any assistance [either technical or in the form of military hardware] to the besieged state.

Though the U.S. administration doesn't seem to have any concerns about the establishment of a North African caliphate by a group which might even exceed ISIS in its ferocious excess, Nigeria's neighbors are rightly alarmed, as Boko Haram is now operating out of sanctuaries located in these countries and threatening to fold them into Shekau's rapidly forming empire.

Over the last few days both Chad and Cameroon have combined forces in an attempt to retake Baga, knowing its strategic as well as propaganda value.

"In what has raised concerns over possible violation of Nigeria's sovereignty, the Chadian government in collaboration with its Cameroonian counterpart, has sent troops to recapture Nigeria's border town of Baga from Boko Haram insurgents, without the knowledge or approval of the Nigerian government. The Nigerian military confirmed Monday it had no knowledge of an order by President Idriss Deby of Chad, deploying that country's armed forces in pursuit of Boko Haram in Nigerian territory…" [source, Nicholas Ibekwe, Boko Haram: Nigeria Downplays Chad's Move To Capture Baga , African Premium Times]

The Jonathan government denies any knowledge that this action is even taking place, casually suggesting through the defense department spokesmen, that if this were occurring it would be of no consequence as far as he is concerned.

Nigeria is caught in an enormous vice which threatens to overwhelm it; Boko Haram has made its intentions clear and the president doesn't appear to care about violations of Nigeria's sovereignty, either regarding the growing jihad or to the presence of foreign troops conducting military operations within his country.

Why the central government remains immobile in the face of a deadly crisis is beyond comprehension, but then so too are the actions, or lack thereof, by President Obama as the West confronts the worst threat it has faced since the Second World War. In the same vein as Obama referring to ISIS as the JV team, Jonathan adamantly maintains that not more than 135 were killed in the Baga atrocity, despite it [former population of 20,000] having been essentially razed to the ground and survivors reporting seeing the surrounding landscape littered with rotting corpses, "as far as the eye could see."

As Chad's president Idriss Deby stated regarding his deploying troops in its neighbor Nigeria, "We answered the call of (Cameroon's) President Paul Biya. We cannot remain indifferent to what happens to our neighbours. Cameroon must not be left alone to face this threat that has so hurt innocent people in Cameroon and in Nigeria." [source, ibid]

As has typically been the case regarding Islamic jihad, the American legacy media has little curiosity. Most of the coverage is coming from abroad and one would be challenged to find mention of this gathering storm, on the front page, above the fold in American newspapers.

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http://www.pipelinenews.org/2015/jan/19/Chad-Cameroon-Move-To-Retake-Nigerian-Town-Of-Baga.html

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/6843