Nigerian leader pleads for world’s help against Boko Haram

President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria yesterday urged the global community to support the Lake Chad region in its fight against Islamist extremism.

Nigeria and neighbouring countries lack the resources and ability to deal effectively with the security threat from militant groups linked to Al Qaeda and other Islamist organisations, Mr Buhari said.

And he urged the international community not to be diverted by other emerging conflicts.

“New conflicts should not make us lose focus on ongoing unresolved old conflicts,” Mr Buhari said.

The militant group Boko Haram has waged an eight-year war from its base in north-eastern Nigeria as it seeks to impose its extreme version of Islamic law in Africa’s most populous country.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.

The region is also on the brink of famine after US$9 billion, or Dh33.06bn, worth of damage to infrastructure with destroyed bridges, school, villages and roads.

Even before the insurgency began in 2009, north-east Nigeria had some of the country’s highest levels of illiteracy and poverty levels.

Nigeria was also warned yesterday that clashes between herders and farmers threatened the country’s national security, after such conflict claimed more lives last year than the Boko Haram insurgency.

The International Crisis Group said about 2,500 people were killed last year and tens of thousands were forced from their homes, as unrest spread southwards from central and northern states.

“These clashes are becoming as potentially dangerous as the Boko Haram insurgency in the north-east,” it said in a report titled Herders against Farmers: Nigeria’s Expanding Deadly Conflict.

The report called for more co-operation and the adoption of measures including better rural security, designated grazing areas and conflict resolution programmes.

The violence has been attributed to a battle for resources because of drought and desertification in northern Nigeria and the wider Sahel region, forcing herders further south.

Cattle rustling, including some cases committed to raise funds for Boko Haram militants, and loss of rural land to urban development are also considered factors.

As a result, tensions between herders and farmers have been seen as inevitable.