The
historic Nigerian military operation that culminated in last Thursday’s
capture of Boko Haram’s main military camp in Sambisa Forest, called
Camp Zero, historically replicates the end of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers
terrorist group in May 2009. Extremely significant though the total
recapture of Sambisa Forest is, it is perhaps too early to say that Boko
Haram has been completely defeated. The missing Chibok girls were not
found. Though soldiers killed hundreds of insurgents since the final
push began last month, the body of Boko Haram’s mercurial leader
Abubakar Shekau was not found among them. Then also, the Boko Haram
faction led by Mamman Nur is believed to have camps on Lake Chad’s
shores and
islands. More insurgents are believed to be hiding in the Mandara Mountains bordering Cameroon as well as in Niger Republic. That is apart from small bands of insurgents in remote villages of Borno State as well as sleeper cells likely to exist in Nigerian cities and towns.
That this conflict came down to a total military solution did not surprise me, personally. Back in 2013, at the height of the insurgents’ attacks and bombings, I attended a meeting in Abuja convened by our professional elders who wanted us to sign a statement demanding that President Goodluck Jonathan seek a negotiated solution to the Boko Haram conflict. I did not sign the statement and it was later published by those who did. Some of the idea’s promoters said even the Second World War ended on the peace table. I said that was not correct; it ended when the Axis Powers individually accepted the Allied Powers’ demand for unconditional surrender. Another statement promoter said no guerrilla force in the world was ever defeated. I again said that was not correct; Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers were totally defeated on the battlefield.
Today, I have counted many similarities between Boko Haram and Tamil Tigers, as well as some contrasts. President Muhammadu Buhari’s proud proclamation at the weekend announcing the recapture of Sambisa and the total defeat of Boko Haram recalls Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa declaring in Parliament in May 2009 that his country had been liberated from terrorism. Buhari said Army Chief Lt General Tukur Buratai told him that Boko Haram’s Camp Zero fell at 1:35pm last Thursday, December 22. In Sri Lanka, the Army Chief publicly stated that Tigers’ mercurial leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was shot dead by soldiers as he tried to flee from the last battlefield. Killed along with him were hundreds of civilians and fighters including Charles Anthony, eldest son of Prabakharan; Balasingham Nadesan, head of the Tigers’ political wing; Seevaratnam Puleedevan, head of their Peace Secretariat; Ramesh, one of their top military commanders; their chief of intelligence, Pottu Amman as well as Soosai, head of the Tigers’ naval wing called “Sea Tigers.”
According to Daily Trust on Sunday’s report yesterday, 4,200 troops marched to Sambisa Forest from four different axes. The Army’s 151 Battalion advanced from the Banki-Darul Jamal axis; 27 Battalion advanced through Mafa; 152 Battalion advanced through Pulka while 222 Battalion approached from Maiduguri. In a way this replicated the Sri Lankan army’s final push against the Tamil Tigers, leading to epic battles for Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu in January to May 2009. However, our military did not say it found the bodies of Shekau, Mamman Nur or al-Barnawi littering the area around Camp Zero, a camp built by the Federal Government in the early 1990s for the training of the National Guard created by the Babangida regime but later disbanded by Abacha. A soldier told Daily Trust that hundreds of Boko Haram fighters were killed during the offensive that began about a month ago while many others were captured alive, including a White man. He said “no big Boko Haram commander is alive in Sambisa. We are in control of the forest.”
If indeed Boko Haram’s murderous campaign ended at the weekend, then it lasted about five and a half years. In contrast, the Tamil Tigers fought for 26 years. Boko Haram is only the popular name for Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, just as Tamil Tigers’ official name was Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE. Boko Haram conflict is said to have cost this country and its neighbours 20,000 lives according to official estimates, though Senator Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai of Borno Central recently said the casualty figures could be ten times that. Even going by the lesser figure, the Boko Haram conflict has been bloodier on an annual basis than the Sri Lankan conflict, which cost an estimated 100,000 lives in 26 years.
That Boko Haram fought to the death was not surprising, given the temperamental and character similarities between Shekau and Prabakharan. Both men brooked no internal dissent, listened to no one, were totally convinced in the righteousness of their cause as well as in their strategic genius. Their causes were however very different. The Tamils believed they were marginalised by Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority and wanted independence for the island’s north. This was a bitter pill for the Sinhalese to swallow since it was British colonialists that brought the Tamils to the island from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu so they could work in tea plantations. As for Shekau, the belief at first was that he was fighting to avenge for the extrajudicial execution of his leader Mohammed Yusuf. He soon expanded the cause to include forcibly converting everyone to his sect’s version of Islam, killing everyone who did not convert, and forming a Caliphate over which he would rule.
In both wars, both sides in the conflict were accused of human rights violations. The Tamil Tigers committed many atrocities including suicide bombings of civilian targets. They also inspired the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi by a Tamil woman in 1991. The UN however accused the Sri Lankan army of committing many rights violations as well. In Nigeria too, Boko Haram committed atrocities including abduction, raping, pillaging, mass executions, beheadings and indiscriminate car and suicide bombings against civilian targets. The Nigerian military was accused of summary executions, torture and reprisal attacks, especially before 2013 when insurgents were hiding inside Maiduguri. Since then the situation improved because the Civilian JTF and local hunters helped the soldiers to sift the chaff from the grain of suspects.
Sri Lanka’s war had a conclusive end because the Tamil Tigers surrendered. Soon after Prabakharan’s death, Tigers’ spokesman Selvarasa Pathmanathan said, “This battle has reached its bitter end. It is our people who are dying now from bombs, shells, illness and hunger. We cannot permit any more harm to befall them. We remain with one last choice to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns.” In contrast, Boko Haram is yet to say that it has silenced its guns in order to prevent the Multinational Joint Task Force now massed on the Lake Chad shores from inflicting further losses on the subjects of its rump Caliphate.
President Rajapaksa said in his victory speech that “We must find a home grown solution to this conflict. That solution should be acceptable to all the communities. We have to find a solution based on the philosophy of Buddhism.” Insofar as the Tamils are Hindus, I thought that was insensitive. It is like Buhari promising Boko Haram leaders a solution based on Christian canon law. There is one final contrast to the two wars. Rajapaksa set up a Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in May 2010 to probe Sri Lanka’s traumatic experience. If the Boko Haram war is over, Buhari should quickly establish a Mistakes Made, Opportunities Missed, Lies Told, Truth Avoided, Lessons Learnt and Repeat Dodged Commission, MMOMLTTALLRDC.
islands. More insurgents are believed to be hiding in the Mandara Mountains bordering Cameroon as well as in Niger Republic. That is apart from small bands of insurgents in remote villages of Borno State as well as sleeper cells likely to exist in Nigerian cities and towns.
That this conflict came down to a total military solution did not surprise me, personally. Back in 2013, at the height of the insurgents’ attacks and bombings, I attended a meeting in Abuja convened by our professional elders who wanted us to sign a statement demanding that President Goodluck Jonathan seek a negotiated solution to the Boko Haram conflict. I did not sign the statement and it was later published by those who did. Some of the idea’s promoters said even the Second World War ended on the peace table. I said that was not correct; it ended when the Axis Powers individually accepted the Allied Powers’ demand for unconditional surrender. Another statement promoter said no guerrilla force in the world was ever defeated. I again said that was not correct; Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers were totally defeated on the battlefield.
Today, I have counted many similarities between Boko Haram and Tamil Tigers, as well as some contrasts. President Muhammadu Buhari’s proud proclamation at the weekend announcing the recapture of Sambisa and the total defeat of Boko Haram recalls Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa declaring in Parliament in May 2009 that his country had been liberated from terrorism. Buhari said Army Chief Lt General Tukur Buratai told him that Boko Haram’s Camp Zero fell at 1:35pm last Thursday, December 22. In Sri Lanka, the Army Chief publicly stated that Tigers’ mercurial leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was shot dead by soldiers as he tried to flee from the last battlefield. Killed along with him were hundreds of civilians and fighters including Charles Anthony, eldest son of Prabakharan; Balasingham Nadesan, head of the Tigers’ political wing; Seevaratnam Puleedevan, head of their Peace Secretariat; Ramesh, one of their top military commanders; their chief of intelligence, Pottu Amman as well as Soosai, head of the Tigers’ naval wing called “Sea Tigers.”
According to Daily Trust on Sunday’s report yesterday, 4,200 troops marched to Sambisa Forest from four different axes. The Army’s 151 Battalion advanced from the Banki-Darul Jamal axis; 27 Battalion advanced through Mafa; 152 Battalion advanced through Pulka while 222 Battalion approached from Maiduguri. In a way this replicated the Sri Lankan army’s final push against the Tamil Tigers, leading to epic battles for Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu in January to May 2009. However, our military did not say it found the bodies of Shekau, Mamman Nur or al-Barnawi littering the area around Camp Zero, a camp built by the Federal Government in the early 1990s for the training of the National Guard created by the Babangida regime but later disbanded by Abacha. A soldier told Daily Trust that hundreds of Boko Haram fighters were killed during the offensive that began about a month ago while many others were captured alive, including a White man. He said “no big Boko Haram commander is alive in Sambisa. We are in control of the forest.”
If indeed Boko Haram’s murderous campaign ended at the weekend, then it lasted about five and a half years. In contrast, the Tamil Tigers fought for 26 years. Boko Haram is only the popular name for Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, just as Tamil Tigers’ official name was Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE. Boko Haram conflict is said to have cost this country and its neighbours 20,000 lives according to official estimates, though Senator Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai of Borno Central recently said the casualty figures could be ten times that. Even going by the lesser figure, the Boko Haram conflict has been bloodier on an annual basis than the Sri Lankan conflict, which cost an estimated 100,000 lives in 26 years.
That Boko Haram fought to the death was not surprising, given the temperamental and character similarities between Shekau and Prabakharan. Both men brooked no internal dissent, listened to no one, were totally convinced in the righteousness of their cause as well as in their strategic genius. Their causes were however very different. The Tamils believed they were marginalised by Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority and wanted independence for the island’s north. This was a bitter pill for the Sinhalese to swallow since it was British colonialists that brought the Tamils to the island from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu so they could work in tea plantations. As for Shekau, the belief at first was that he was fighting to avenge for the extrajudicial execution of his leader Mohammed Yusuf. He soon expanded the cause to include forcibly converting everyone to his sect’s version of Islam, killing everyone who did not convert, and forming a Caliphate over which he would rule.
In both wars, both sides in the conflict were accused of human rights violations. The Tamil Tigers committed many atrocities including suicide bombings of civilian targets. They also inspired the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi by a Tamil woman in 1991. The UN however accused the Sri Lankan army of committing many rights violations as well. In Nigeria too, Boko Haram committed atrocities including abduction, raping, pillaging, mass executions, beheadings and indiscriminate car and suicide bombings against civilian targets. The Nigerian military was accused of summary executions, torture and reprisal attacks, especially before 2013 when insurgents were hiding inside Maiduguri. Since then the situation improved because the Civilian JTF and local hunters helped the soldiers to sift the chaff from the grain of suspects.
Sri Lanka’s war had a conclusive end because the Tamil Tigers surrendered. Soon after Prabakharan’s death, Tigers’ spokesman Selvarasa Pathmanathan said, “This battle has reached its bitter end. It is our people who are dying now from bombs, shells, illness and hunger. We cannot permit any more harm to befall them. We remain with one last choice to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns.” In contrast, Boko Haram is yet to say that it has silenced its guns in order to prevent the Multinational Joint Task Force now massed on the Lake Chad shores from inflicting further losses on the subjects of its rump Caliphate.
President Rajapaksa said in his victory speech that “We must find a home grown solution to this conflict. That solution should be acceptable to all the communities. We have to find a solution based on the philosophy of Buddhism.” Insofar as the Tamils are Hindus, I thought that was insensitive. It is like Buhari promising Boko Haram leaders a solution based on Christian canon law. There is one final contrast to the two wars. Rajapaksa set up a Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in May 2010 to probe Sri Lanka’s traumatic experience. If the Boko Haram war is over, Buhari should quickly establish a Mistakes Made, Opportunities Missed, Lies Told, Truth Avoided, Lessons Learnt and Repeat Dodged Commission, MMOMLTTALLRDC.
Credit: http://www.dailytrust.com.ng
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