Australian Negotiator Indicts U.S Over Boko Haram

Australian negotiator, Dr Stephen Davis, has accused the United States of not sharing intelligence on Boko Haram with Nigerian government.

boko-haram-Abubakar Shekau

TheCable reports that the negotiator, who was in Nigeria for four months to negotiate the release of the abducted school girls from Chibok, Borno State, with Boko Haram commanders, questioned the value of the United States involvement in the war against insurgency.

“Americans claim they are doing aerial reconnaissance. Why are they not passing the information to the Nigerian military? With this information, the Nigerian military could intercept the Boko Haram convoy before it reaches its target,” he said.

Davis, while recounting the days and weeks he spent talking with commanders of the sect over the release of the Chibok girls, revealed that the terrorists usually move in a convoy of 20 to 60 vehicles at night, before they expanded and started launching large-scale attacks in the daylight.

He also hinted on how the sect usually ambush Nigerian soldiers as a result of the hostile environment in the North-East, and described the incident of last six months as worrisome. He said most roads in the rural north of Borno are very narrow.

“The militants normally strike at night, so they lay in wait where the military has to slow down to a crawl due to the poor road condition. Sometimes they dig the potholes deeper to entrap a convoy. On getting wind of the ongoing attacks, the Nigerian military would dispatch soldiers in a convoy of vehicles. Unfortunately, and unknown to the soldiers, the insurgents may have enlarged a big hole on the road. So in a convoy of say 20 vehicles, the first vehicle draws to a halt as it encounters the ditch. By the time the soldiers realise what is happening and try to make a U-turn, they are ambushed by the insurgents as the convoy struggles to turn around on the narrow pot-holed road,” he said.

The negotiator, however, noted that military action alone is unlikely to end the insurgency currently bedeviling the country.

It would be recalled that after Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 female students from Government Girls Secondary School, in April 2014, the U.S.A. promised to help Nigerian government fight insurgency. It gave some of its military personnel to training Nigerian soldiers, as well as shared some aerial reconnaissance data and equipment, but did not send any ground troops.

Other international communities like the United Kingdom, Israel and China also offered to help, but, despite the promises from these international powers, the menace of the dreaded terrorist group is yet to be fully curtailed.

Meanwhile, Dr Stephen Davis had on August 31, 2014, insisted that former governor of Borno State, Modu Sheriff and former Chief of Army Staff, General Onyeabo Azubuike Ihejirika are Boko Haram sponsors. It would be recalled that ex-Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Nasir El-Rufai also alleged on August 28, that Modu Sheriff, Gen. Ihejirika are Boko Haram sponsors.