In Its Effort to track down Boko Haram Yesterday, U.S. officials said that Nigerian forces are not acting quickly enough on new intelligence gathered by American surveillance drones and satellites. "It is impossible to fathom that we might have actionable intelligence and we would not have the wherewithal
— whether by the Nigerians themselves or by other entities helping the Nigerians — to be able to conduct a rescue mission,” said Senator Robert Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Pentagon's principal director for Africa, Alice Friend, added that “In the face of a new and more sophisticated threat than [Nigeria] has faced before, its security forces have been slow to adapt with new strategies, new doctrines and new tactics." She concluded that "in general, Nigeria has failed to mount an effective campaign against Boko Haram."
Complicating matters is that the Nigerian army is itself a problem. The Los Angeles Times explains that it would be illegal for the U.S. to work with troops because of their history of humans rights abuses:
Human rights groups have documented widespread abuses by Nigerian forces over the last few years, including the burning of homes and farm buildings, shooting suspected Boko Haram members as revenge for attacks on police, and detaining young men indefinitely without trial. The army and police “are not disciplined and are very abusive,” Sarah Margon, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch, said Thursday.
None of this bodes very well for the French talks on Saturday, which will bring leaders from Nigeria's neighboring countries, as well as the U.S., EU and U.K., to the table.
