Ban on Nigeria arm sales aids extremists, U. S. told

The United States has unintentionally helped Boko Haram militants by refusing to arm Nigerian security forces fighting the Islamic extremists, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria said Wednesday

Two days after meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, Buhari said his country’s security forces were “largely impotent” in their fight against Boko Haram, and he put the blame on a U. S. law that blocks assistance to foreign security forces that are accused of human- rights abuses.

The application of the law “has aided and abetted the Boko Haram terrorists,” Buhari said in a speech to the United States Institute of Peace.

He said the allegations of human- rights violations against Nigerian forces were unproved, and that restrictions on military aid have “denied us access to appropriate strategic weapons to prosecute the war against the insurgents,” according to a transcript posted on the institute’s website.

Buhari urged Obama and Congress to find a way around the law, which restricts sales of certain weapons.

Referring to Boko Haram’s activities, he said, “I know the American people cannot support any group engaged in these crimes.”

Amnesty International has said Nigeria’s military is responsible for the deaths of

8,000 detainees — some shot, some of untreated wounds from torture, others starving or asphyxiating in overcrowded cells.

Meanwhile, Nigerian officials have said Boko Haram has killed more than 13,000 people and driven another 1.5 million from their homes during its 6- year- old insurgency.

On Thursday, officials said blamed the group for bombings that killed dozens of people in Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon.

Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency called for urgent blood donations to treat 105 wounded people after explosions at two bustling bus stations in northeastern Gombe town on Thursday, agency spokesman Sani Datti said. He said at least 29 bodies had been recovered.

In Cameroon, two suicide bombers Wednesday killed at least 22 people and injured at least 50 at a marketplace near the border, officials said. Cameroon has increasingly become a target of Boko Haram after aiding Nigeria in its fight against the insurgents.

Buhari has made ending the insurgency a priority since he took office eight weeks ago. U. S. officials see a strong interest in Nigeria defeating the Islamic militants, and as recently as Monday, when Obama and Buhari met at the White House, administration officials vowed to help Buhari in the fight.

The administration’s refusal to sell Nigeria advanced weapons, including military helicopters, strained Washington’s relations last year with Buhari’s predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan.

But human- rights violations by the Nigerian military have been a concern for the United States for years, and U. S. officials often have cited such accusations when discussing limits on U. S. cooperation with the Nigerian military.

A law in force since 1997, known as the Leahy Law, bars sales of certain types of weapons to the militaries of countries that have been credibly accused of human- rights abuses.

Nigerian officials, including Jonathan, have played down the accusations of abuses, saying violations committed in the fight against Boko Haram have been “exaggerated.”

In his inauguration speech in May, Buhari said he would address accusations of abuses by the military. “We shall improve operational and legal mechanisms, so that disciplinary steps are taken against proven human- right violations by the armed forces,” he said.

Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The New York Times and by Michelle Faul and Edwin Kindzeka Moki of The Associated Press.