By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Pope Francis and the United Nations have joined Nigeria’s lawmakers to condemn the killing of scores of farmers and villagers in Borno State by Islamist militants, with Francis calling it a “terroristic massacre” that offends the Name of God.
Francis spoke of the massacre during his weekly general audience on Wednesday, held virtually from his library in the Vatican because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I want to assure my prayers for Nigeria, which unfortunately once again has been bloodied by a terroristic massacre,” Francis said, quoted by Reuters.
“May God welcome them into his peace and comfort their families, and may he convert the hearts of those who commit such horrors, which gravely offend His name.”
Sack Buhari for failing to sack service chiefs, says Omokri
“If General @MBuhari refuses to sack his service chiefs, the @NGRSenate should grow a spine and summon up the will to sack Buhari. Otherwise, terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers will kill Northerners one by one. This should not be a case of my brother is there,” Reno Omokri said in a tweet on Wednesday.
Omokri, former social media aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, is a regular critic President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari has consistently ignored calls from the Senate to sack the service chiefs who oversee national security apparatus.
On Tuesday, following the slaughter of 110 rice farmers in Borno, the Senate restated the motion it adopted in July asking him to sack the service chiefs.
Buhari has not responded.
The Senate had in July urged him to fire the service chiefs but he riposted by reminding the lawmakers that he is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and would only do what is in the interest of the country.
“The Senate Tuesday adopted a resolution calling on the service chiefs to resign or be sacked due to the multi-pronged security challenges in the country.
“The Presidency notes the resolution, and reiterates that appointment or sack of service chiefs is a presidential prerogative, and President Muhammadu Buhari, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, will do what is in the best interest of the country at all times,” a statement issued by Buhari’s Media Adviser, Femi Adesina, said at the time.
Before then, Aso Rock had alleged in February that those calling for the sack of the service chiefs were Boko Haram beneficiaries.
“A group of politicians and beneficiaries of the Boko Haram insurgency is right now paying for people to join their planned protest against our country’s service chiefs,” said a statement issued by Buhari’s Media and Publicity Assistant, Garba Shehu.
The service chiefs are Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonishakin; Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar; and Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.
They have been in posts since 2015, except Adamu who was appointed in 2019.
30 men beheaded, 10 women missing
Around 30 men were beheaded in the latest attack in Borno, which began last Saturday morning in the village of Zabarmari, and the UN estimates that at least 110 people were killed across Jere Council in the state.
At least 10 women were reportedly still missing as of Sunday.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but it is suspected to be the work of Boko Haram.
Such massacres have been carried out in the past by Boko Haram or the Islamic State West Africa Province which are both active in Nigeria’s North East, where Islamic militants have killed at least 30,000 people since their uprising began in July 2009.
The armed campaign has displaced about two million people and has spread to neighbouring countries including Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
UN seeks prosecution of killers
Farmers were harvesting crops when they were attacked by armed men on motorcycles, in the “most violent direct” assault against civilians in Nigeria’s North East this year, the UN said.
The “gruesome” massacre killed “tens of people” the UN said, amending an earlier statement putting the death toll at 110.
The UN Security Council said “those responsible for these terrorist attacks should be held accountable.”
The killings took place in the early afternoon of November 28 in the village of Koshobe and other rural communities in Jere Council near Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.
“Armed men on motorcycles led a brutal attack on civilian men and women who were harvesting their fields,” Edward Kallon, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, said in the statement.
“Tens of civilians were ruthlessly killed and many others were wounded in this attack,” he added.
“The incident is the most violent direct attack against innocent civilians this year. I call for the perpetrators of this heinous and senseless act to be brought to justice.”
Buhari, who took office in 2015 promising to fix the security crisis, also denounced the latest massacre.
“I condemn the killing of our hard-working farmers by terrorists in Borno State. The entire country is hurt by these senseless killings,” he said via his spokesman.
But Al Jazeera reports security analyst Sulaiman Aledeh as saying many are growing frustrated with the inability of Abuja to contain the conflict.
“If you’ve seen [what happened to] Niger, President Mahamadou Issoufou had to sack his security chiefs when 89 soldiers were killed. So Nigerians are asking why are you keeping these people,” Aledeh told Al Jazeera from Lagos.
“The problem here has to do with the government of the day seems to be rewarding loyalty over professionalism. They [Nigerians] think by now the government should’ve tried a few good other men to get them out of this mess.”
Violence reduces opportunities for survival
Last Sunday, Borno Governor Babaganan Umara Zulum told journalists that at least 70 farmers were killed. He spoke in Zabarmari village after attending the burial of 43 people whose bodies were recovered the previous day.
Zulum urged the federal government to recruit more soldiers, Civilian Joint Task Force members, and civil defence fighters to protect farmers in the region.
He described people facing desperate choices.
“On one side, they stay at home they may be killed by hunger and starvation; on the other, they go out to their farmlands and risk getting killed by the insurgents,” he lamented.
Bulama Bukarti, an analyst at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, said the failure to control Boko Haram has devastated lives and the economy.
“The security forces are obviously losing this war,” he told Al Jazeera, describing 2019 as “the deadliest year” for Nigerian security forces since Boko Haram’s armed campaign started in 2009.
Said he: “About 800 security forces were killed, mostly in the first half of last year, and the Nigerian military responded by changing its strategy introducing what they called the ‘super camp strategy’ by which they withdrew soldiers from remote communities and rural areas and consolidated them in what they call ‘super camps’ in order to reduce military fatalities.
“The strategy succeeded in reducing military fatalities but the side-effect of that is that the Nigerian military has effectively surrendered control of rural Nigeria to Boko Haram fighters.
“You have Boko Haram ruling northeastern Nigeria and criminal gangs ruling the rural communities of northwestern Nigeria; this has a devastating effect on Nigeria’s economy and the future of the country entirely.”
Vincent Lelei, UN deputy humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, told Al Jazeera from Maiduguri that people in the region “live in extreme fear” amid the prolonged crisis “which has led to so much suffering, so much displacement and destruction of livelihoods.”
He added: “Borno State is a state with very good soil, there is a lot of water on the ground, and a lot of crops grow very quickly.
“Given the opportunity, the livelihoods of the people could recover so quickly – but this insecurity, this problem of violence against unarmed civilians is reducing those opportunities.”