B/Haram reaching the brickwall, but here is what we think about their obsession with Maiduguri - Damaturu Highway

image

BY YUNUSA BUNU, AUGUST 10, 2021 | 12:20 AM


For the past few years, the Maiduguri - Damaturu Road has been in the news for being one of the major targets of Boko Haram's nefarious attacks.

The expressway, precisely a stretch of it covering less than 50 miles still undergoing dualization rehabilitation, has become a source of several attacks from the terrorists, killing and kidnapping several people over the last decade.

The road is one of the most important economic routes linking Borno and other parts of Nigeria.

One of their deadliest attacks was in February 2020 where the terrorists killed over 30 passengers, including little children completely burnt to death.

The attack yielded exactly what the terrorists wanted--attention, both of local and international media.

Our reporter, Yunusa Bunu, who is reporting the incident over the last five years believed that the terrorists concentrate on attacking the road because of the attention it draws to them in the media, both national and international.

The road is a soft target for the terrorists and takes a small scale operations to attack, but has a huge potential for creating big headlines.

Among other things, this justifies the funding, weaponry and other supplies they receive from their foreign allies and financiers, mainly the Islamic State, ISIS.

The terrorists' desire to impress their funders and competition among the factional groups over who gets their blessing is very obvious from what led to the killing of Abubakar Shekau, the most dreaded of the terrorists' gang leaders.

Part of the long-drawn misunderstanding that caused cracks in the group's ranks way back in 2016, and ever since steadily widening, was over allegiance to ISIS and courting its recognition.

For instance, after the February attack, President Muhammadu Buhari visited Borno.Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, the state governor went as far as shedding tears at the scene.

The United Nations, Nigeria's national assembly, the Nigerian Governors Forum and civil society organisations, among others, also either visited the state or bitterly condemned the attack in newspapers

All these played into the terrorists' propaganda playbook, dragging the whole world into it, including the paymasters.

They followed it up with another propaganda video celebrating the achievement, inflating the casualty figures and posturing as still being invincible and deadly, with the capacity to create more havoc to impress their sponsors.

There has been massive reinforcement of security men along the road, with many bases and formations.

However, despite reinforcements, the terrorists continue to cause isolated disturbances, even if small in scale, across the road, targeting civilian travelers.

They target specifically aid workers, security men, women and others alike for abductions, as that promotes the cause of their propaganda.

In the past few weeks, they carry out indiscriminate abductions, but only to release the abductees a few hours later without any harm or ransom.

Many are nonplussed as to why the terrorists free them without any harm or ransoms, and almost immediately.

But this reporter, relying on his experience and interaction with senior military officials and scholars on the subject, gives a possible explanation.

He explained that the reason the terrorists many times had to cart away with the travellers is simply to prevent Nigerian military warplanes from trailing and firing at them while they withdraw to their enclaves and hideouts.

Mostly, when such attacks occur, which are for loot and for propaganda, there is re-enforcement of both ground and air reinforcements coming to engage them and pursuing them.

As a rule of engagements, troops, land or air, don't shoot into scenes with civilian populations, in order not to kill innocent persons. They rather lure or chase the enemy into an open killing field before engaging them in any direct gunbattle.

When they flee along with the abducted persons in their midst, the warplanes are already handicapped from firing into or at them, as that would come with collateral damages, our reporter thought.

'A typical example was the attack on July 8 when the terrorists fled with a commuter bus and a 406 Peugeot full of passengers in Mainok. Just few minutes after they struck, there was a massive re-enforcement from Maiduguri, Ngamdu Super Camp and the Nigerian Air Force.

'They immediately fled, but the jets could not fire them. It must be because the NAF pilots don't fire into civilian spaces.'

The abducted persons were all later freed after the terrorists understood that they were no longer in danger of aerial bombardments.

Some of the freed persons told our reporter that the terrorists only asked them to choose between joining them and going back to live with 'infidels', referring to the people of Maiduguri.

Except for security operatives or those who tried to escape, the terrorists hardly harm the abductees in recent weeks.

In all the three attacks in the last month, the terrorists freed, without harm or ransom, all the civilian abductees, except security personnel and those who tried to escape.

The likely reasons for these, for now, are two: the terrorists are one, fleeing along with them to serve as a shield from the ground and air troops and/or two, using them as agents of propaganda so that when they return to their communities, they would talk of how equipped, deadly and invincible the group is.

Ali Saidu, a passenger who was abducted by the group along the road and spent about 50 days in their captivity, told this reporter in January that they were taken to a location in a faraway northern Borno, at some points taking boats and cross rivers, before making it to the 'main camp' of the terrorists.

This place is possibly at the fringes of Lake Chad, given the distance and terrain described, which includes open wastelands, rivers and fishing activities going on.

At the 'main camp', he said the terrorists have their court for arbitration, prisons for incarceration but in addition live in tents. They have markets where they sell predominantly fish and other goods, Saidu would recollect.

'Most of them carry guns on their shoulders and have their families around. After being jailed for some days, we were later taken to the court to face the judge who was to determine our fate. He, later on, declared us innocent and invited us to join their movement. After giving excuses for not joining, he directed that each of us be given N20, 000 and taken to a roadside where we can find our way back,' he narrated.

Saidu was scared off by what he had seen, wondering if it is as easy to ever blunt the terrorists' momentum. But YERWA EXPRESS NEWS thinks that could all be but propaganda theatrics played out on him.

Way forward

The Nigerian authority has already taken the right step in ensuring the security of the road and its users by establishing additional military formations and the Rapid Response Squad, RRS, of the Borno State Government, who constantly carry out patrols.

The military has already begun to take the war to the enclaves of the terrorists, with the constant ground and aerial bombardments, spurring massive defections in recent weeks.

So far over 700 have turned themselves over to troops.

The defections is also serving several purposes.

The accounts coming from the defectors of their networks, financiers and hideouts, among other things, offer our military an important guide to identify and flush out those still hibernating in the wastelands and bushes, hellbent on their misbegotten ideas.

Already, the factional conflicts between the groups, already consuming one of the faction's leaders and many other of his commanders, is playing into the agenda of the Nigerian troops, who according to military sources, are leaving nothing to chance in fully exploiting.


Appeal for support


Conflict Reporting is dangerous and risky. Our reporters constantly face life-threatening challenges, sometimes surviving ambushes, kidnap attempts and attacks by the whiskers as they travel and go into communities to get authentic and firsthand information. But we dare it every day, nonetheless, in order to keep you informed of the true situation of the victims, the trends in the conflicts and ultimately help in peace building processes. But these come at huge cost to us. We are therefore appealing to you to help our cause by donating to us through any of the following means. You can also donate working tools, which are even more primary to our work. We thank you sincerely as you help our cause.

Alternatively, you can also email us on info@yen.ng or message us
via +234 803 931 7767