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| The Rise of Africa' Secret Militant, Terrorism and Insecurity |
The Africa Militant is fighting more and more wars on covert battlefields and with Armies shrouded in mystery. U.S. Special Operation Forces are now deployed on every continent to fight terrorism and intervene secretly in civil wars.
Boko Haram is believed by many to be hiding out in the Sambisa forest in northeastern Nigeria. A vigilante network of villagers has been venturing into the woods to search for the over 200 missing girls. Few others dare enter this no-mans land. What other assets are being used to find them? WSJ's Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer.
Nigeria removed a general involved in the search for kidnapped schoolgirls, after troops fired shots into his vehicle and accused him of embezzling money meant for their weapons and food.
The army on Thursday tried to calm rebellious soldiers in the country's northeast a day after soldiers in Maiduguri, the military headquarters in the region, revolted and accused their commander.
Top officers flew to Maiduguri to defuse tensions as soldiers complained of inadequate cars, guns and armor to fight Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgency, soldiers and witnesses said.
The group has taken responsibility for kidnapping 276 teenage girls from a boarding school in April. Nigeria is gearing up for an internationally backed operation aimed at rescuing them.
Earlier in the week, several soldiers said Boko Haram insurgents jumped at them from the forests, killing 12, in an ambush in an ambush along a road the soldiers had asked to avoid.
Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, a military spokesman, said the army would discipline soldiers who took part in the hourslong revolt on Wednesday. hourslong No one was hurt in the attack.
"Let me assure that the military will sustain the current tempo in the fight against insurgents," he said.
Nigeria is coming under intense pressure, from home and abroad, to rescue the abducted schoolgirls—53 of whom escaped—and defeat the Islamic insurgency that kidnapped them.
Yet the soldiers' revolt shows how the call for action is colliding with harsh realities on the ground. President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to visit Maiduguri on Friday to assess the military campaign, officials of the Borno state government said.
The troops he is likely to meet are up against an insurgency that has moved in a few years from bows and arrows to rocket launchers and machine guns mounted on pickup trucks.
Nigeria's troops stationed at roadblocks are without basic accessories like sandbags or helmets. Several say they have been kept beyond their tour of duty, or that their salaries have arrived weeks or months late. Some say they don't eat on a regular basis.
One soldier said he has to drive at night in a truck with broken headlights: "I am given a dead patrol vehicle here," he said. "I spend most of the time trying to fix it."
On Thursday, Gen. Olukolade promised an investigation into the troops' conditions. "It is not in the character of the Nigerian soldier to be unruly," he said.
One soldier said he has to drive at night in a truck with broken headlights: "I am given a dead patrol vehicle here," he said. "I spend most of the time trying to fix it."
The troop revolt on Wednesday is an ominous sign for Nigeria. A mutiny by soldiers in nearby Mali allowed al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an al Qaeda ally, to conquer a swath of that country larger than France, while discontent among government troops in Central African Republic gave an Islamic rebellion there free rein to take that country's capital.
Many soldiers in Maiduguri say they sympathize with the mutineers, even if they were distancing themselves from their actions.
"As a soldier, we would not say we are planning to fight our superiors," said one soldier. But he added: "No one can predict when a frustrated soldier bursts up."
Some of the world's most powerful militaries—China, France, the U.K., U.S. and Israel—have pledged to share satellite and surveillance plane intelligence that will help Nigeria locate the 223 girls who remain missing.
A question looming over the operation, though, is any rescue attempt. It is unclear how willing Nigeria's disaffected soldiers will be to challenge Boko Haram, even if the girls are located. The insurgents have in the past distributed videos of captured Nigerian troops beheaded.
A global twitter campaign called #BringBackOurGirls has taken root in the weeks since the abductions. Public figures including U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron have prodded the government—and by extension, Nigeria's army—to rescue the teenagers.
