A
report by a committee of the United States House of Representatives
has linked the fundamentalist Islamist sect, Boko Haram, to al
Shabaab, the terror group that carried out the September 21 Westgate
Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya.
Al-Shabaab is a Somali-based group whose members are said to be highly proficient in suicide bombing.
The report dated September 13, 2013
and entitled, ‘Boko Haram: Growing Threat to the US Homeland’, also
acknowledged the growing relationship between the Nigerian sect and
another terror group, the Al Qaeda in the land of the Islamic Maghreb.
The 39-page report noted that “while
there is no evidence that al Qaeda’s core in Afghanistan and Pakistan
commands Boko Haram’s operations, it is clear from the words of multiple
US officials and media reports that Boko Haram is supportive of, and
supported by Al Qaeda networks such as AQIM.”
It noted that “it is the unity of
ideology and mutual hatred for the West between the Al Qaeda networks
that exposes the danger Boko Haram poses to the U.S Homeland.”
The committee described Boko Haram as a
“hardened and sophisticated terror network” that required multiple
simultenous local and international efforts to enhance the capacity and
capability of the the Nigerian Police and the military to curtail its
activities.
It said there was an urgent need by the
US to designate the sect as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation because it
has shown no signs of ending its aggression against the government of
Nigeria and the Western world.
The commiteee wrote, “The world is
coming to know more about Boko Haram; their intentions, what they’re
capable of, and who is supporting them.
“The US Intelligence Community is
working to erase the gaps in our understanding of Boko Haram, but it is
already evident they are a serious threat to US interests and
potentially to the US Homeland.
‘‘Acknowledging this threat publicly by
designating Boko Haram an FTO will establish a legal mechanism for
prosecuting any supporters within US jurisdictions.
“This is an increasingly important tool given their attempts to market themselves to a wider international audience.
“Boko Haram shows no signs of ending its
campaign against the government of Nigeria and the Western world. Two
years after their August 2011 bombing of a United Nations facility in
Abuja, Nigeria, Boko Haram remains a threat to the international
community, and continues to be a developing threat to the US Homeland.”
The report said that Boko Haram had
“highly skilled bomb makers who might have received training from
experienced militants elsewhere, potentially indicating a stronger
relationship between them and AQIM or Al Shabaab.
It said that besides building
sophisticated weaponry, it was now possible that Boko Haram had acquired
or will acquire SA-7 and SA-24 shoulder-fired surface-to-air
missiles.
The SA-7 missile is effective up to
1,300 metres, while some newer models reach altitudes of almost four
kilometres. Although most aircraft cruise around 9,140 metres, the
SA-7 could be used to target aircraft during takeoff and landing.
In the report, the committee warned,
“It does not take much imagination to picture the threat these weapons
would pose to commercial aviation in Abuja if they fell into Boko Haram
hands.”
Out of the 20,000 such weapons in Libya,
only 5,000 of them had been secured through a $40m US programme to buy
up loose missiles during the fall of the Gadhafi regime. Most are
believed to have found their way into countries that share common
boundaries with Nigeria.
The committee acknowledged that the
Goodluck Jonathan administration had taken some potentially promising
steps in its effort to fight Boko Haram.
It said the appointment of Col. Sambo
Dasuki (retd), a northern Nigerian Muslim, to the position of National
Security Adviser on June 23, 2012, demonstrated Jonathan’s willingness
to give northerners and Muslims a visible role in Nigeria’s struggle
with Boko Haram.
“Dasuki has taken the lead in organising
government’s fight against Boko Haram, and his background as a Muslim
from the North may give him obvious and potent symbolic significance,”
the committee said.
In spite of this, the committee observed
that concerns regarding the capability of the Jonathan administration
to effectively deal with Boko Haram remained prominent.
The committee said without foreign
assistance from countries such as the US and the UK, the Nigerian
government would almost certainly face a prolonged battle in
neutralising Boko Haram.
According to the committee, the State
Department, which has also engaged Nigeria through its African Coastal
and Border Security programme, has focused its assistance on
peacekeeping support, training, border and maritime security, and
increasing military professionalisation.
But it lamented that in spite of the
training, the “JTF continues to behave unprofessionally, and has been
accused of human rights abuses by Human Rights Watch, among other
entities, including the State Department’s most recent annual human
rights report.”
It also warned that greater pressure
must be applied to the JTF to abandon counter-productive and brutal
tactics alienating northerners.
The committee said failure of the
Secretary of State to designate the Boko Haram sect an FTO, was the
‘most obvious flaw in the US effort to combat it and prevent its
expansion.’
It said, “If Boko Haram were to be
designated an FTO, it would support US intelligence community efforts to
curb the group’s financing, stigmatise and isolate it internationally,
heighten public awareness and knowledge, and signal to other governments
the US takes the threat from Boko Haram seriously.
“If Boko Haram is not designated an FTO,
its potential threat to the US and its capability to attack the
homeland would likely increase. It is therefore an urgent next step to
take in fighting this growing al Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria.”
The committee further said as the number
of attacks perpetrated by Boko Haram had increased in 2013, so had the
attention paid to the group by the US.
