By TJ COLES

Last month, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari wrote an op-ed in the Financial Times. It might as well have been written by the Pentagon. Buhari promoted Brand Nigeria, auctioning the country’s military services to Western powers, telling readers that Nigeria would lead Africa’s “war on terror” in exchange for foreign infrastructure investment. “Though some believe the war on terror [WOT] winds down with the US departure from Afghanistan,” he says, “the threat it was supposed to address burns fiercely on my continent.”

With Boko Haram and Islamic State operating in and near Nigeria, pushing a WOT narrative is easy. But counterterror means imperial intervention. So, why is the Pentagon really interested in Nigeria, a country with a GDP of around $430 billion – some $300 billion less than the Pentagon’s annual budget – a population with a 40 percent absolute poverty rate, and an infant mortality rate of 74 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to 5.6 per 1,000 in the US?

A US Naval Postgraduate School doctoral thesis from over a decade ago offers a plausible explanation: the Gulf of Guinea, formed in part by Nigeria’s coastline, “has large deposits of hydrocarbons and other natural resources.” It added: “There is now a stiff international competition among industrialized nations including the United States, some European countries, China, Japan, and India.”

Since then, the US has been quietly transforming Nigeria’s police and military into a neo-colonial force that can support missions led by the US Africa Command (AFRICOM). Buhari’s offer makes US involvement in Nigeria appear as if Nigeria is asking for help, when in fact the stage is already set for AFRICOM.

The Pentagon’s broader aim is to stop China and Russia from gaining a foothold in the continent. In the meantime, it aims to crush any and all opposition groups that disrupt energy supplies so that oil giants can continue exploiting Nigeria’s resources.

A brief history of a complex country

It’s important to get an idea of Nigeria’s ethnic and regional complexities. The country’s 206 million people, nearly half of whom are Muslim and nearly half Christian, live north of the equator in West Africa. Their country has 36 states, seven of which are coastal. The country borders Cameroon in the east, Benin in the west, Chad in the northeast, and Niger in the north and northwest.

A US Strategic Studies Institute report from the mid-‘90s describes Nigeria as “an artificial state created according to colonial exigencies rather than ethnic coherence.” Its fragility explains the country’s susceptibility to ethnic, religious, and class warfare. The majority of Nigerian Muslims are Sunni, but Islam in the country spans the spectrum, from Sufism to Salafism. The Christian population is distributed among the Protestant majority as well as Anglicans, Baptists, Evangelicals, Catholics, Methodists, and Roman Catholics. Most of Nigeria’s Muslims live in the north in 12 states whose laws are based on sharia.

Nigeria boasts hundreds of languages and ethnicities, the largest groups being the Hausa (who make up 30 percent of the population), Yoruba (15.5), Igbo (a.k.a., Ibo 15.2), and Fulani (6 percent). There are, of course, exceptions, but in general the Hausa-Fulani and Kanuri peoples tend to be Muslim and the Igbo, Ijaw, and Ogoni Christian. Islam and Christianity tend to be mixed among the Yoruba. During the late-19^th century “Scramble for Africa,” the British colonized the region, Christianizing the south and leaving in place the Islamic political structures in the north both for convenience and as a useful divide and rule technique.

Black gold, British rule

Drawing up “contracts” for energy companies, the Foreign Office (FO) created a monopoly for Anglo-Persian oil (later BP) and particularly for Shell. Prospecting contracts were awarded by the FO in the late-1930s, but it was as late as 1956 that financially viable amounts of black gold were struck. Most of the country’s oil is in the southern, Niger Delta region populated by the Ijaw and Ogoni peoples, hence there is little militant Islam in Nigeria’s illicit oil sector. Shell operations began in Ogoniland in 1958.

Nigeria gained slow and painful independence from Britain in 1960. Seven years later, armed Igbo fought a war of secession in the oil-rich south to try to form their own country, the Republic of Biafra. Under a One Nigeria policy, the British supported the central regime of General Yakubu Gowon during the Biafra War (1967-70). Fighting and blockade  led to three million deaths. Biafra failed to secede.

The UK Labour government’s Commonwealth Minister, George Thomas, explained at the time: “The sole immediate British interest in Nigeria is that the Nigerian economy should be brought back to a condition in which our substantial trade and investment in the country can be further developed, and particularly so we can regain access to important oil installations.”

As the British Empire declined, the US gradually pursued the same policy in Nigeria. At first, the US considered supporting Biafra.

The Kennedy administration initiated $170 million in economic and military spending in Nigeria under a plan that continued until 1966, into the Johnson administration. William Haven North, who served as the Director for Central and West African Affairs for the US Agency of International Development (USAID) said: “The issue of supporting Biafra was also tied up with the question of oil interests; the major part of the oil reserves in Nigeria were in the Eastern Region with substantial American oil company investments.” In 1978, the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet began the regular exercises in the Gulf of Guinea that continue to the present.

Indigenous activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was arrested on phony charges and executed by a Nigerian military functioning as a private army for the Shell oil company

Enter Uncle Sam

In 1990, the Nigeria-dominated Economic Community of West African States (ECO) established a military wing, the so-called Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). The George H.W. Bush administration contributed $100 million. The succeeding Clinton White House said that for so-called peace-keeping operations in other African countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone, “Nigeria provided most of the ‘muscle’.” At this point, the seeds were sown for Nigeria’s use as a delegate for US wars in Africa.

By the dawn of the new millennium, the 3^rd Special Forces Group (Army Command) was training Nigerian battalions to assist United Nations support missions. The Nigerian military enjoyed tens of millions of dollars-worth of US weapons.

Meanwhile, indigenous activists suffering under oil spills and environmental destruction established the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. Nine of this group’s leaders, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, were later arrested on trumped up charges and executed by the national military that had been funded by Shell to act as its own private army.

The murders sparked international outrage and activists successfully pressured the US to terminate military aid. General Sani Abacha, under whose dictatorship the Ogoni Nine were hanged, established a Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to fight both activists and gangs. The MNJTF was later centered in Chad and used as a base from which to fight Boko Haram.

In 1999, Nigeria ended its military rule, at least on paper. By the mid-2000s, Human Rights Watch was wrote that, under the façade of parliamentary democracy, “the conduct of many public officials and government institutions is so pervasively marked by violence and corruption as to more resemble criminal activity than democratic governance.”

With the Ogoni, Ijaw, and other Niger Delta peoples crushed with force, some turned to violence. Following lobbying by Shell, Nigeria’s old colonial master, the UK, began spending taxpayer money on military operations to counter armed groups: £12 million between 2001 and 2014, when Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) co-authored their report. CAAT documents the UK exportation of nearly £500m-worth of weapons to Nigeria in that period, including missiles and grenades. It cites increased UK arms exports as a direct reason for the failure of the southern ceasefire. UK “security contractors” including Control Risks, Erinys, Executive Outcomes, and Saladin Security were embedded with mobile police units to crush protestors.

Nigeria and the “war on terror”

Western propaganda paid less attention to Shell’s systemic violence against the Ogoni and other peoples, focusing instead on the more headline-grabbing resistance, such as high-profile ransom kidnappings and pipeline disruption. State oppression in the drier, less fertile north, meanwhile, fed the narrative pushed by Islamic groups: that Western culture is toxic.

Founded in 2002 and led by Mohammed Yusuf who was later executed by the state, Boko Haram is officially called the Group of the People of Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad (Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād). It emerged in the northeastern city, Maidugari, close to Chad and Cameroon, where it set up semi-autonomous communities. Religious graduates who studied in Sudan attempted to form similar communes but were attacked by the police. In 2009, Boko Haram members allegedly fired at a police station in Bauchi. The government response was to trigger civil war.

The MNJTF mentioned above, is described as “notorious” in a British House of Commons Library report. It was reactivated, this time to fight the Islamists. The report also notes how the Nigerian Armed Forces terrorized the civilian population with raids, arrests, and indiscriminate shelling.

The UK ramped up its training of Nigeria’s military while the US used Chad as a base for its “war on terror” operations: the Pan-Sahel Initiative (covering Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger) and the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (which included Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, and Tunisia). AFRICOM’s initial operations in Nigeria involved maritime training and integrating the country’s forces with those of other African nations to foster pan-African military alliances.

In its early years, AFRICOM paid little attention to Boko Haram. But this changed as the profile of attacks got bigger.

In 2011, Boko Haram launched a formal insurgency. A report published that year by the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence outlined Boko Haram’s roots and the reasons for its popularity. They included “a feeling of alienation from the wealthier, Christian, oil-producing, southern Nigeria, pervasive poverty, rampant government corruption, heavy-handed security measures, and the belief that relations with the West are a corrupting influence.” It added that “[t]hese grievances have led to sympathy among the local Muslim population despite Boko Haram’s violent tactics.”

These grievances were met with the kind of violence that further fuels grievances.

The US escalates involvement

In the context of the “war on terror,” the Pentagon saw Boko Haram as an opportunity to train Nigeria’s military and employ it for its objectives. The primary US goal was ensuring that the oil-rich regions did not fall into enemy hands.

The Congressional Research Service noted that by the time AFRICOM was founded in the late-2000s, Africa “supplie[d] the United States with roughly the same amount of crude oil as the Middle East.” An Armed Services Committee report in 2011 noted: “Nigeria’s oil rich Niger Delta is a major source of oil for the United States outside of the Middle East.” The US Energy Information Administration states: “Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa. It holds the largest natural gas reserves on the continent and was the world’s fifth–largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.” The country has 37 billion barrels of proven crude, second only to Libya, which was bombed to pieces by the US and NATO in 2011.

Nigeria’s forces summarily executed Boko Haram’s leader Yusuf in 2009. A thesis published by the US Naval Postgraduate School notes that in addition to the assassination, “security forces killing or displacing thousands of Nigerian Muslims, is credited with swelling [Boko Haram BH]’s ranks.”

Yusuf’s deputy, Abubakar Shekau, took over and escalated a suicide bombing campaign. The Navy thesis also notes that “the actions of BH, along with other militant groups such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), have reduced the country’s oil production, displacing Nigeria from 5^th to 8^th on the list of America’s largest foreign oil suppliers.”

In 2013, the states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe imposed emergency powers. The Pentagon announced a $45 million-dollar budget to counter Boko Haram by training troops in Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. One of the consequences is that Nigeria has been transformed from a peripheral US interest to a proxy force. Years of war, mostly in the north and border regions, have led to 2.1 million internally displaced people. The World Food Program calculates that 3.4 million face hunger and that 300,000 children are malnourished.

Building a Sparta state

In June 2014, it was reported that a 650-person unit, the Nigerian Army’s 143^rd Battalion, was set up on the ground and trained by US Special Forces from the California Army National Guard’s Special Operations Detachment-US Northern Command and Company A, 5^th Battalion 19^th Special Forces Group (Airborne). By then the Nigerian Army was active in 30 out of the country’s 36 states.

Chief of the US Army Africa’s Security Cooperation Division, Colonel John D. Ruffing, said: “It is not peacekeeping … It is every bit of what we call ‘decisive action,’ meaning those soldiers will go in harm’s way to conduct counterinsurgency operation[s].” One US soldier said: “This is a classic Special Forces mission—training an indigenous force in a remote area in an austere environment to face a very real threat.”

In 2015, Boko Haram’s leader Shekau reportedly pledged allegiance to Islamic State, rebranding the organization IS West African Province (ISWAP). A Congressional Research Service report notes that ISWAP “has surpassed Boko Haram in size and capacity, and now ranks among IS’s most active affiliates.”

It’s not as if strategists don’t understand that violence doesn’t work. They understand that violence escalates violence which can then be used as pretexts for more violence. A US Council on Foreign Relations article from 2020 notes: “the last two years have been deadlier than any other period for Nigerian soldiers since the Boko Haram insurgency began.”

As the war against Boko Haram waged on, Niger Delta gangs in the south threatened to resume attacks on oil infrastructure. US “aid” expanded to include training the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) across the country. In November 2016, 66 officers graduated from the Fingerprint Analysis and Forensics training program, an initiative run by the US Embassy in collaboration with the Office of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement and Atlanta Police Department.

In March 2017, 28 Nigerian officers graduated from courses offered by the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs division, led by US police from Prince William County, Virginia. The program also provided “equipment, training, mentoring, and capacity-building support to various Nigerian law enforcement and justice sector institutions.”

U.S. Army soldiers deployed to Nigeria Army’s School of infantry trained more than 200 Nigerian soldiers in 2018

Expanding AFRICOM’s role

In what the US State Department calls a “whole of government” approach, military operations continued as police training expanded. In early-2018, 12 US Army soldiers, led by Captain Stephen Gouthro, trained 200 Nigerians at the Nigerian Army’s School of Infantry. Facilitated by the US Army Africa, eight Security Assistance and Training Management Organization soldiers and four 1^st Brigade Combat Team soldiers shared “ground-combat tactics” with the Nigerian Army’s 26^th Infantry Battalion.

In July this year, US Army Special Forces trained 25 officers of the Nigerian Navy Special Boat Service as part of JCET: a five-week Joint Combined Exchange Training program.  The Acting US Consulate Political and Economic Chief, Merrica Heaton, says that the training is designed to help the Nigerian military stop crime in the Gulf of Guinea and “counter violent extremists in the Northeast and enforce the rule of law throughout the region.”

As observers seemingly spotted the top-secret US stealth drone—Northrop Grumman’s RQ-180—over the Philippines, the Department of Defense sold nearly $500 million-worth of propeller planes to Nigeria, marking what the US Embassy and Consulate describes as “an historic level of cooperation …  between the U.S. and Nigerian militaries.” AFRICOM recently confirmed that the inauguration of twelve A-29 Super Tucanos into the Nigerian Air Force will serve a “critical role in furthering regional security and stability.”

The Pentagon allocated $36.1 million to the US Army Corps of Engineers to renovated Kainji Air Base, which will host the Super Tucanos. In addition to training simulator and small arms storage units, the Base includes “aircraft sunshades, a new airfield hot cargo pad, perimeter and security fencing, airfield lights, and various airfield apron, parking, hangar, and entry control point enhancements.”

“Gray zone” warfare against China

Having left operations to Special Forces, AFRICOM is now tasked with overseeing an expanding footprint in Nigeria. But in addition to preventing oil supply disruptions, the US seeks to counter Russian but particularly Chinese involvement. According to the US state-run outlet, Voice of America (VOA), the China National Offshore Oil Corporation began investing in Nigeria’s state oil sector in 2005.

A 2007 US Army War College thesis expressed concern that, following “donations” of Chinese military equipment to Nigeria, China had helped the government to drill hundreds of boreholes in a goodwill gesture to provide clean drinking water. The US acted to tarnish China’s image. As part of what is now called the “whole of government” approach, the US 96^th Civil Affairs Battalion, US Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, networked with Nigerian civilians, private industry, and aid agencies. The US Army War College implies that this was to psychologically counter China’s influence.

Nigeria signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China in 2018 to integrate into China’s global infrastructure and investment project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). More recently, the VOA has said that China took advantage of Nigeria’s crime- and terror-related oil instability, investing billions of dollars in oil to stabilize supply lines.

From the US military perspective, this so-called “political warfare” creates what they famously call a “gray zone” of conflict in which areas traditionally thought of as economic and civilian are weaponized. Analyst Kaley Scholl of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisitions writes that in one war game, the 91^st Civil Affairs Battalion coordinated with the 3^rd Special Forces Group to uncover “a Chinese conglomerate active in Nigeria who announced a deep-water port being constructed in one month as part of China’s BRI.” In the war game, US PSYOPs beat back the Chinese.

Scholl claims that “Chinese gray zone operations are eroding the US’s legitimacy and challenging the liberal rules-based world order.” In reality, US imperial aggression and wars by proxy erode whatever legitimacy Pentagon planners think they have.

But such analysts seem to forget that both the US and China are armed with nuclear weapons and possess the intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering them. The Pentagon might consider Nigeria to be just another pawn in the new cold war chess game. However, any escalation of tensions in flashpoints, like Taiwan, could unintentionally trigger nuclear catastrophe. This appears to be a risk the Pentagon is willing to take to enforce “full spectrum dominance.”

thegrayzone.com

Leaders of secessionist groups visiting Washington were traditionally shunned by the State Department. These hapless would-be presidents and prime ministers would be lucky to meet with a low-ranking State Department employee. However, if their independence movements were championed by the Central Intelligence Agency, they would get red carpet treatment. Such was the case with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's favorite Balkans "toy boy," Hashim Thaci, the leader of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army and now President of the Republic of Kosovo, which was carved out of Serbia but is still unrecognized by many of the world's most important nations, including China and Russia.

Today, one of the most-commonly seen words in State Department Country Desk reports is "secession." In the past, State Department senior bureaucrats would be raising this development with the Secretary of State as a major threat to US interests. The CIA would then be instructed to remedy the situation by providing intelligence support to the countries where secessionist activity was a rising problem. "Support" would range from intelligence assistance to full-blown military aid.

As the United States recedes from the "world's only superpower" status, to the chagrin of neoconservatives who are pouring into the Donald Trump administration in order to right the capsizing ship-of-state, secessionist activity is seen from the streets of Catalonia, which recently re-elected a pro-independence parliament, to virtual city-states in Mexico, which are increasingly going it alone to offset the breakdown in federal security and law enforcement support.

In the secessionist-minded Republika Srpska, a restive constituent region of the Bosnia-Herzegovina federation, Serbian nationalists have held a banned "Day of the Republic" celebration in the regional capital of Banja Luka. Srpska President Milorad Dodik has demanded more autonomy for his region, declaring there were two Serbian states, Serbia and Republika Srpska. Present at the banned event in Banja Luka were Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin, Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, and former Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic. Joining them was Anatoly Bibilov, the President of the Republic of the Republic of South Ossetia–the State of Alania, a region that broke away from the Republic of Georgia and received recognition from Russia, Nicaragua, Nauru, Venezuela, and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

To the consternation of Eurocrats in Brussels and in the Balkans, also in attendance was Aleksandar Karadjordjevic and his wife, the heirs presumptive to the throne of the former Yugoslavia, and Johann Gudenus, the chairman of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO), which makes up half of the governing coalition of Austria. Dodik awarded a Republika Srpska medal to Austrian Vice-Chancellor Hans Christian Strache, the leader of the FPO faction in the Austrian government. In the past, such an international outpouring of support for a secessionist-minded republic would have resulted in a flurry of diplomatic protests and démarches from the State Department.

After a recent election returned a coalition of pro-independence Catalonian parties to a majority of 70 seats in the Catalonian 135-seat parliament, the neofascist Madrid government of Mariano Rajoy has been put into a quandary. The Catalonian parliament has re-elected former Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont, who was removed by Rajoy after an October 1, 2017 referendum that favored independence. Puigdemont, who is in self-exile in Belgium, where he has the support of the powerful Flemish pro-independence party, faces arrest by the Madrid regime if he returns to Catalonia. The thuggish reaction by the Rajoy regime has engendered sympathy for the Catalonian cause in other secessionist-minded regions of Spain, including the Basque region, Valencia, and Galicia, and around the world. The Castillian imperialists who govern Spain imprisoned several members of the Catalonian government in a Madrid prison after Rajoy imposed direct rule on Catalonia.

The case of Catalonia has resulted in popular blowback against Spain from other parts of Europe, including Scotland, which is demanding a second referendum on independence upon Britain's exit from the European Union.

Taking a cue from the Madrid government, Nigerian authorities recently arrested Cameroonian Anglophone secessionist movement leader Sessekou Julius Ayuk Tabe, along with some of his aides, in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. The arrests came after Cameroon accused Nigeria of harboring supporters of the breakaway region of Ambazonia on the Nigerian side of the border. French-speaking Cameroon considers the English-speaking secessionist movement to be a "terrorist" organization, the usual appellation assigned by Third World dictatorships to pro-democracy groups and movements. Nigeria has called those in the southern part of the country who want the restoration of Biafra, a nation that enjoyed a brief period of independence in the late 1960s. The Nigerian military eventually crushed the rebellion by the mainly Christian Ibos, who dominated the breakaway republic.

The newly-inaugurated president of Somaliland, Muse Bihi Abdi, was received with full diplomatic honors on his first trip abroad to neighboring Djibouti. What makes this newsworthy is that no country has formally recognized Somaliland's self-declared independence from Somalia, even though the country has been independent for 19 years. Somaliland, which has its own currency and issues its own passports, maintains an effective government as compared to that of Somalia's. In the past, Djibouti's full honors for the Somaliland president would have resulted in a curt diplomatic note from the US embassy in Djibouti for extending de facto recognition of Somaliland.

In Mexico, the town of Tancítaro, which lies deep within the drug cartel-controlled state of Michoacán, has decided to establish a de facto city-state. The "avocado capital of the world" is now governed by a "Junta," backed by wealthy avocado growers who have hired their own security force to contend with the narco-gangs. Similar quasi-city states have been established in Monterrey, where local businesses have taken over security duties from corrupt police, and Ciudad Nezahualcóуotl (or "Neza"), outside of Mexico City, where the local leftist administration has established its control over the local police, monitoring their every activity for corruption or human rights abuses.

The Algerian government has decided, after years of opposition, to acceding to some of the demands of the minority Berber Kabylie Independence Movement. Amazigh, the Berber language, is now an official language of Algeria. Algeria now celebrates January 12 as Yennayer, the Amazigh New Year. An Amazigh language academy is now planned in Algeria. In the past, the US State Department, influenced by US oil and gas firms active in southern Algeria, would have been aghast at concessions by the Algerian government to Berber nationalists. In what worries Spain, Amazigh is now the third most widely spoken language in Catalonia, after Spanish and Catalan. The Amazigh flag is often seen being waved with the Catalonian flag at independence rallies in Barcelona. There are common roots between the Catalans and Berbers and this has resulted in Amazigh support for Catalonia's independence and vice versa. Although many Amazigh speakers in Catalonia are Muslims, religion is a non-issue. The Catalan-Amazigh relationship pre-dates Christianity and Islam. The unity between the Catalan and Amazigh people are similar to the pan-Celtic pro-autonomy or independence solidarity between the peoples of Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Cornwall, Brittany, and Galicia. Eventual Celtic and Catalan-Amazigh political unions cannot be ruled out.

In India, some "scheduled tribes," the name assigned by the government to indigenous tribal groups, are examining historical documents between British colonial officials and their own past leaders and are discovering they have every right to independence from India. Indian police recently arrested for "sedition" the 83-year old Ramo Birua, an 83-year-old from a village in Jharkhand state, because he called for the raising of the flag of an independent Kolhan state. Birua and his followers cited the rule imposed in 1837 by the British Agent for Kolhan region, Sir Thomas Wilkinson. The "Wilkinson Rule" stipulated that the existing civil and criminal laws of tribal states would be recognized by the British authorities. India's independence did nothing to change the Wilkinson Rule, thus, "scheduled tribes" across India, including the Karbi and Bodo of Assam, the Hmars of Mizoram, and the Bettada of Karnataka, have a legal right to go their own way. In the case of Mr. Birua, he claims his tribe's right to sovereignty is ensured by British Queen Elizabeth II, as the heir to Queen Victoria, the British monarch whose royal imprimatur was conferred upon the Wilkinson Rule.

Even within the United States, there is talk of "autonomy" by states from federal intrusions. Colorado is prepared to fight the Trump administration's stated crack down on marijuana sales. In Colorado and other states that have legalized marijuana, Democratic and Republican officials are prepared to fight the Drug Enforcement Administration in any moves against their legalized medical and recreational marijuana industries. The same applies to federal authority to conduct offshore oil exploration and drilling. California, which has also declared its independence from Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, is standing opposed to drilling in its Pacific waters. Florida successfully persuaded Trump to exempt it from the drilling order, however, Virginia, North Carolina, and other states are seeking similar exemptions. Other matters that are driving states' rights rebellions against Washington are in the areas of immigration, federal land use, engine emissions standards, voting rights, health care, and public education. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, abandoned by Washington after repeated hurricane disasters, are subtly re-evaluating their previous opposition to independence.

The demise of neo-colonialist busybody diplomats at the State Department has ushered a "global spring," where both active and long-dormant independence movements are seeing glimmers of hope for their own nation-states.

During its 13 years of existence (or active existence, at least) Boko Haram has been responsible for hundreds of terrorist attacks, resulting in a death toll in the tens of thousands. So when the new president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, took office, there was a good reason why his first move was to take rapid steps to create an inter-African coalition to fight BH. First, Buhari, (a former army general) shifted his army command out of the capital and into the strategically important center of Maiduguri, which is very close to the hub of BH’s operations. Literally only a few days after his inauguration, he paid visits to the rulers of Niger, Chad, and Benin and also arranged a meeting of leaders in Abuja. A decision was made at that meeting to establish the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF). The MNJTF commands 8,700 soldiers who will be fully deployed by July 30, and a Nigerian general, Tukur Buratai, has been appointed its commander.

President Buhari also demonstrated the seriousness of his intentions with a special visit to Cameroon for a personal meeting with President Paul Biya. Cameroon, which is also under constant attack by BH, had previously sent only its minister of defense to the negotiations. Such decisiveness is quite telling, especially given the undeniably complex relationship between Nigeria and Cameroon. The two countries were involved in a lengthy territorial dispute that was resolved in 2002 by the International Court of Justice. However, there were certainly flaws in the way that conflict was settled: formally the issue was decided in favor of Cameroon, but as a practical matter – France came out on top, because at the time the decision was announced, the president of the International Court of Justice was French. The court’s arguments were so feeble that the verdict was not handed down until the last day of the Frenchman’s presidency.

And its credibility can be judged, for example, by this sentence: «Britain and Germany had the right to establish boundaries in Africa». That statement would seem unthinkable for an international court in the 21st century, but that’s how it actually read. The biggest impact of what was clearly a forcibly imposed decision was felt on the Bakassi peninsula – a vital area with strategic oil reserves – which was then cut off from Nigeria. This remains a real problem for the Nigerians who live there. At the whim of a Frenchman from The Hague, they suddenly became foreigners on Cameroonian territory … However, Buhari managed to transcend the difficult relationship between the two countries in order to pay a visit to Cameroon.

Boko Haram has a fairly long history of individual attacks on Christian churches in Nigeria, but now they have taken their operations to a new level and have begun striking against Muslims and the civilian population in general, without discrimination. For a long time BH was seen as a solely Nigerian problem, but gradually they have begun to launch raids within neighboring countries as well, primarily in Cameroon, in addition to Chad and Niger. And their victims are certainly not limited to Christians (although attacks openly aimed at Christians continue) or even students «receiving a Western education». (1)

BH’s galvanized transition from a local to a transnational organization is clearly evident. Acts of terror and armed, direct attacks are occurring simultaneously in various spots in the region, resulting in many victims and showing evidence of first-rate operational training. On June 16 there was a massive terrorist attack in the Chadian capital of N’Djamena. It was on a scale unprecedented in Chad even compared to the last war waged by that government. (2) Nothing like it had been seen even during the civil war of the 1960s or during the perennial domestic unrest found in some parts of the country. In 2015 alone BH has launched a number of attacks on towns in Niger, during which several dozen people have been killed, mostly women and children.

Nigerian President Buhari’s efforts culminated in his on-the-spot creation of a quadripartite coalition and in the onset of its active and coordinated efforts against BH. Even before all the parties to the MNJTF were fully on board, each of the coalition’s member states was already acting on its own, taking defensive and offensive steps against this common enemy. For example, on June 25, Nigerien troops wiped out 15 militants from BH and captured another twenty. And from reports it is not yet clear within whose borders they were killed.

When Boko Haram began its operations, it was generally assumed that the organization’s real goal was to fight Western influence, but then it gradually became clear that this was just a cover story. Another version of the myth espoused by BH – that they oppose Christians – has also slowly disintegrated. That fiction had been discredited long before BH began terrorizing Muslims. It is now clear that BH’s goal is to internally destabilize Nigeria. The killing of Christians was intended to kindle interreligious strife – something to which Nigeria is extremely susceptible. When this tactic failed, they resorted to more conventional butchery, trying to incite chaos and panic.

Today, any country that attempts to start down the path of development is confronted by the problem of insurgent/terrorist organizations. There can be no doubt that BH is a creature with global power. This was once again confirmed by the recent report from the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) about the investigation of the situation in Nigeria. The Nigerian government filed a lawsuit with the ICC against BH, but then the ICC launched an investigation of the Nigerian government itself for «violating human rights during the fight against Boko Haram»!

On June 5 the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, also added his voice to the defense of BH, expressing utmost concern about the killings, «total terror,» and other grave human-rights violations committed by rebels in northeast Nigeria, as well as the violations of humanitarian law by that country’s armed forces. Here we see how BH has been seated in the dock alongside the forces battling against them. And the use of the term «rebels» is very suggestive when speaking about terrorists. It is no accident that the human-rights advocate lodged no grievances against BH, but instead ordered the government of Nigeria to conduct an «independent» investigation of its own forces that are leading the fight against BH – i.e., he demanded that that struggle be undermined. But who will fight terrorists if they are going to be persecuted for it?

Moreover, a new note can now be heard in the songs sung by global powers: they are demanding an end to the «human-rights violations» allegedly committed not only by government forces, but also by some «pro-government factions». No information has been provided as to who these might be. But it is clear that if Nigerian officials begin to persecute their own citizens who are forming militias to fight BH, that government will be tossed aside, or the entire fight will be neutralized at the very least. Now we see the proof of this.

It is also worth noting that Nigerian President Buhari has decided to replace those agencies upon which his country had been relying in its fight against BH. Previously the US and the G7 nations had provided support, but in 2014 the Nigerian government also began to receive assistance (including satellite intelligence) from China. And in 2015 help even began arriving from Russia. (3) What’s more, the overture to Russia was made because the US and other Western countries failed to send supplies. (4) According to Nigerian media reports, special op forces in the struggle against BH have been sent to Russia for training. (5) In addition, Russia has supplied weapons directly to Cameroon to combat BH. (6) Judging by the reaction of the ICC and the UN human-rights advocates, the efforts of Nigerian President Buhari and the new coalition of countries to combat terrorism (in a broad sense) have been effective indeed.

A wave of terrorist attacks hit Kenya after Somalia collapsed as a unified state with large swathes of its territory going out of government control. Al-Shabab is a leading Somalian terrorist group. On September 21, 2013, its gunmen attacked the upmarket Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The attack resulted in at over 80 deaths. The Garissa attacks in many respects resemble the Nairobi terrorist act. The al-Shahab militants killed only those who said they were Christians while letting go the people who said their faith was Islam. The Nairobi slaughter was organized on the eve of Catholic Good Friday. 

Al-Shabab (2) is a Wahhabi terrorist group. Its troop strength is estimated at 7,000 to 9,000 militants. By and large, it employs the same tactics as Boco Harum in Nigeria. The both organizations strike Christians with utmost cruelty and do their best to attract public attention to the committed acts. To achieve the desired effect they target Christian churches during religious holidays. 

There are a few things worth to be noted in relation to the Garissa attack. First, al-Shabab is based on the Somalian territory beyond the government’s control. Since 1991 (3) the Somalian «presidents’ and «governments» have been coming and going while the UN-supported transitional federal government’s control never extended beyond some districts of the capital (it has never succeeded in establishing control over the entirety of Mogadishu). Somalia is a safe haven for various terrorist groups. Second, the actual absence of central government does not mean there is no power at all. Groups like al-Shabab compete for influence. The African Union offers the government military aid. (4) The al-Shabab militants would have done better by concentrating on internal strife than staging raids in neighboring Kenya – the actions that seemingly do not serve any purpose. Why cover the distance of 200 kilometers to the Kenyan border? Why choose Garissa as a target? Third, the al-Shabab’s actions seem to have no relation to the declared goals. It’s hard to imagine the group trying to spread Islam in the predominantly Christian Kenya. (5) Then why commit the terrorist acts at all? 

As in the case of Boco Harum the mission is to incite ethnic hatred. They want to make Christians hate Muslims. This is the way to plunge Kenya and Nigeria into internal chaos. It’s not just a coincidence that the International Criminal Court is investigating the situations in the both countries. The leadership of these two states should be prevented from cracking down on terror. Each time one of the governments makes an attempt to do it the International Criminal Court says it is guilty of human rights violations. In case of Kenya, the government is accused of war crimes. The case of Uhuru Kenyatta, the incumbent president of Kenya, was closed under the pressure of the African Union. The organization threatened to withdraw from the Rome Statute. The International Criminal Court’ trial of Kenya's vice-president, William Ruto, continues. 

The mass terror attacks in the country started at the time the country achieved some economic success. In the early 2000s substantial crude oil deposits were found there. The government has made a deal with China to attract investments into oil production. The terror attacks from Somalia make Kenya subject to never ending instability. The US military 1992-1995 operation in Somalia is widely believed to have failed. There is ground to believe it’s not so. In reality the operation was quite a success. Media painted it as a defeat to disguise the real goal – to have a large territory beyond the control of any government – a unique place on the world map (at least on such a scale). 

* * *

These days we have become the witnesses of how 147 Kenyan boys and girls died as martyrs when they confessed of being Christians looking in to the eyes of death. Let’s face up to reality – the global forces destabilize Kenya, Nigeria and other countries that strive for self-determination and independence. The implementation of their evil plans would require many more victims. 

The new Nigerian president has a colorful history. In the 1980s he was behind a coup that forced out the democratically elected president, but after a year and a half he was himself overthrown during a takeover led by General Ibrahim Babangida. That was not Muhammadu Buhari’s first revolution. He took part in his first coup d’état back in 1966 when he and other generals ousted the military dictatorship of Aguiyi Ironsi. 

The recent voting in Nigeria was divided along clear ethnic lines. Buhari is a member of the Hausa ethnic group, and received many votes from fellow tribesmen in the North, but his candidacy was also supported by members of Nigeria’s second largest clan, the Yoruba (in the Southwest), because Buhari selected a Yoruba, Yemi Osinbajo, to be his vice president. That meant that the Hausa running mate chosen by the current president, Goodluck Jonathan, did not provide him with sufficient support from voters who cast their ballots along ethnic lines, as is often the case in Nigeria. But Goodluck Jonathan (a member of the Ijaw clan), (1) had been counting on the fact that 40% of the Nigerian population does not belong to one of the three main ethnic groups, and those voters feel aggrieved and dissatisfied with the rotating list of Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo leaders who have ruled Nigeria since the country won its independence in 1960.

The primary domestic problems in Nigeria are related to security and the fight against the Boko Haram terrorists. Buhari has proposed the creation of a new special unit to combat the wave of kidnapping, robbery, and other serious crimes that have swept the country. Until now the government’s hands have been tied in the fight against terrorism. Whenever the army has carried out operations to oust insurgents, the «international community» and, in particular, the International Criminal Court, has threatened the Nigerian government, demanding that «respect for human rights» be preserved during these operations.

Buhari’s foreign policy is notable for its proposal to «establish a special relationship» with the BRICS countries, particularly with Russia. The new president also plans to complete the creation of a free-trade zone – the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) – and to introduce a common currency in those nations. He sees Nigeria as a leader of this association. (2)

Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa and possesses some of the greatest oil reserves in the world. The country also has immense reserves of natural gas (the known reserves total a quarter of a billion cubic meters), as well as coal, gold, bauxite, zinc, iron ore, tantalum, niobium, and other minerals. And in recent years Nigeria has been on a path to industrialize. It is a little-known fact that Nigeria has an electronics industry that produces its own computers and other electronic devices. The local auto industry also enjoys generous support (which includes levying expensive duties on imported cars). In 2014, Nigeria had the fastest growing economy in Africa, outpacing South Africa. (3) In our opinion, it follows that the terror that has been suddenly unleashed throughout the country by Boko Haram is linked to this policy of development. As has been seen in Libya and other states, the West deals quite harshly with countries that attempt to pursue an independent course of development, persecuting them until the very institution of the state has been destroyed.

The «international community’s» interference in the recent Nigerian elections was clearly excessive in nature. The US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Nigeria in January and met with the two leading presidential candidates. Oil remains uppermost on the Americans’ minds. The US is the biggest importer of Nigerian oil (4), and it is important for them to be able to keep all the political forces within the country in check. Incidentally, John Kerry’s meeting with both candidates was reminiscent of a well-known incident in July 1994, in which a «radical solution» was used to settle the power struggle in Nigeria: at that time there was a «strange incident» during which, over the course of a single day, both the acting and the newly elected presidents of Nigeria died (Sani Abacha and Moshood Abiola), and the latter died while meeting with … a delegation from the US. (5) 

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon tried his utmost to influence the course of the presidential elections in Nigeria. However, it was the International Criminal Court (ICC) that was the most shameless about putting overt pressure on Nigeria. In December 2014 the ICC prosecutor issued a report on Nigeria. Given the situation in the country, it was assumed that an investigation would be launched into the crimes committed by Boko Haram (BH), but the ICC prosecutor suddenly announced that she had more incriminating evidence against Nigerian government officials than against BH, because the government was allegedly using «indiscriminate force» against BH militants. A few weeks later, several lawyers tried to initiate legal proceedings within the ICC, on the basis of a statement General Buhari made back in 2011 and which allegedly resulted in the deathes of about 800 people. (6)

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda also made an unprecedented announcement before the day of the Nigerian elections, in which she «issued a warning» that her office would «closely monitor the elections.» (7) This statement should have convinced Nigerians that, as a signatory to the ICC’s Rome Statute, Nigeria is no longer a sovereign state, although the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court is complementary, meaning that it plays a supplementary role to the state jurisdiction of its member nations. 

Judging by General Muhammadu Buhari’s election platform, the government of Nigeria is going to have to face some very difficult foreign-policy challenges. Perhaps a «special relationship» with the BRICS countries, representing a prototype of a new, alternative system of international relations, could help ease the work ahead for the Nigerian leadership.

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The fact that the African Union may withdraw from the ICC Statute has attracted attention. The issue was discussed while the ICC tried to prevent the drastic decision. In December 2014 the trial chamber demanded for the process to be started or withdraw all charges in the case of Kenyan President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta. On December 5, 2014, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) officially withdrew the charges against the President of the Republic of Kenya. There was no evidence to go upon, as there was no evidence to support accusations in the cases of Libyan Muammar Gaddafi, Laurent Gbagbo, the President of Cote D’Ivoire and Omar – Bashir, the President of Sudan. The purpose of all these lawsuits was not to establish the truth but rather to exert pressure on the heads of state. It’s propitious to remember that when the ICC held its first trial (the case of Thomas Lubanga from the Democratic Republic of the Congo) the first witness to testify confessed right in the court room that he had given false evidence under the pressure of prosecutor’s office. 

Right before the African Union’s summit the International Criminal Court decided to demonstrate its readiness to cooperate with the AU. It used the case of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the leading opponent of the International Criminal Court, for the purpose. For ten years (1) (!) the Court could not arrest a single person charged in the case of Lord’s Liberation Army. On January 24, Dominic Ongwen, a commander in the Lord's Resistance Army, abruptly decided to surrender and face the trial the day after. (1) This trick proves that the Court can arrest anyone it brings charges against. But it does it only to meet its own purposes. 

The struggle for keeping Africa a party to the International Criminal Court is still ahead. Attempts to find a compromise mixed with muscle flexing will take place till the next AU summit in June 2015. 

The demonstration of force is becoming more visible in Nigeria with its general elections (including presidential election) to take place on February 14. On February 2, Fatou B. Bensouda, an ICC prosecutor, unceremoniously meddled into the pre-election campaign calling on Nigerians to make a right choice. Sounds blur enough, but there is a clear message in this phrase. The fight against the Islamist group Boco Haram is at the top of Nigerian agenda. The group takes active part in the election campaign. Blasts have accompanied the leading candidates rallies. On February 3, a bomb went off just 3 minutes after Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan left an election campaign rally. (3) The Boco Haram’s terrorist activities have been intensified. The ICC prosecutor has said the Nigeria’s government forces have already committed crimes against humanity that fall under the ICC jurisdiction. It’s an unambiguous message to the President of Nigeria. The prosecutor calls on the voters to make a right choice. It constitutes a direct involvement into Nigeria’s internal affairs. The candidate calling for unrelenting fight against Boco Haram has received a «black spot» from the International Criminal Court. (4) 

African states are not alone among those who are disillusioned with the ICC activities. On January 16, the International Criminal Court prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, launched a «preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine». In response Israel started an active campaign to discredit the International Criminal Court. It called on other states to stop funding it. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on January 18, «We will demand of our friends in Canada, in Australia and in Germany simply to stop funding it», he told Israel Radio. «This body represents no one. It is a political body», he said. «There are a quite a few countries – I've already taken telephone calls about this – that also think there is no justification for this body's existence». Germany, Canada, Australia and Japan are the main ICC donors. There was an interesting reaction to the statement. «The countries that support the court will continue to support the court», said one European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. «We respect the independence of the court and the prosecutor». (5) «Protecting the judicial and prosecutorial independence of the ICC is critically important», he added. (6) By the way, the investigation may lead to quite opposite results than expected, no matter the picture is clear. The ICC prosecutor may come to a conclusion that Israel is not the only one to commit the crimes. Trying to look «impartial» the ICC’s ruling may say that the «both sides» have done it. Such a verdict would not mean that both – Israel and Palestine – would be made responsible. Israel has not become a party to the ICC Statute (the Rome Statute) and it’s not under the Court’s jurisdiction. Palestine is a signatory to the Rome Statute and its leaders may become defendants. Once Israel is not a party, internal political opponents, like Hamas, for instance, could have been the target for the Palestinian government becoming a signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It’s not a rare occasion when the International Criminal Court is used as an instrument to fight internal opposition by governments of some states. Here is an example. The government of Uganda became a party to the Statute of ICC hoping the Court will help it to catch the leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army. The same thing has happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The government did not dare to bring to court the opposition leaders and transferred them to the ICC. By accepting the case the Court violated its own Statute. Palestine has to take into account that the attempts to transfer cases to the Court may have unexpected consequences. The ICC easily changes targets. The attempts to «outwit» the West may backlash. 

Talking at the final session of the African Union summit, the new African Union chairman Robert Mugabe has recommended that Africa must pull out of the International Criminal Court. «What the West will say or do is not my business», he added. The withdrawal from the International Criminal Court has already been included into the official agenda of the African Union summit to be held in June this year. (7)

The armed conflict in Mali is still going on, where, at the start of 2015, the number of attacks on national and international security force personnel, most notably those working with Mali’s armed forces and the UN peacekeeping mission, rose sharply. The start of the new year was also marked by new attacks on towns and villages, as well as on local leaders who support the peace process, by terrorist groups. The Malian army, the local population and UN peacekeepers are all suffering serious losses. All in all, the UN Mission in Mali has, over the last six months, become the bloodiest UN mission currently in operation. On the eve of the new year, UN bases were even subjected to rocket attacks (1). Several days ago, UN armed forces took part in an offensive involving air strikes on certain settlements for the first time. The operation drastically altered the attitudes of those living in the north, who are now demanding the immediately withdrawal of UN troops from the country (2). 

Towards the end of 2014, an uprising took place in the Republic of Burkina Faso resulting in the resignation of President Blaise Compaoré. The UN Secretary General, however, formally recognised the revolt as a “popular uprising”, and no sanctions were imposed on the new authorities. Officially, the popular uprising was triggered by the attempts of Compaoré (3), who had ruled the country for 27 years, to change the constitution so that he could run for office for a third term. Mass protests began on 28 October and lasted for four days, during which time 30 people were killed and more than 600 were injured. On 31 October, Compaoré stepped down and fled the country. 

It is interesting that the internal political instability in a number of countries in West Africa is specifically linked to heads of state seeking third terms. Following the overthrow of Burkina Faso’s president, the political situation escalated in Benin, where President Yayi Boni also submitted an amendment to parliament in order to be able to run for president for a third term. In November, there were mass demonstrations in Togo, where President Faure Gnassingbé put himself forward for the elections taking place in March 2015 for a third time. Although the constitution of Togo does not prohibit such a nomination, it should be borne in mind that the current president is the son of General Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who ruled the country for 38 years (4). Mass demonstrations also took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo in mid-January, during which dozens of people were killed. These demonstrations were also caused by the desire of the current president of the DRC, Joseph Kabila, to run for a third term.

A political crisis arose in Niger after the country’s head of parliament, Hama Amadou, was accused of child trafficking. Although a warrant for his arrest was issued immediately after parliament lifted his immunity, the arrest did not take place since the suspect had by then already fled the country. 

There is also still an ongoing crisis in Nigeria. Terrorist attacks by Boko Haram (BH), as well as violence and shelling, have become more frequent of late, especially in north-eastern Nigeria (5), and BH is also attacking military and security facilities with increasing frequency. The victims of these terrorist attacks are not just ‘infidels’, but also Muslims, BH militants are not just setting fire to Christian churches, but also mosques, and Muslim theologians are also being attacked. It seems that the increased terrorist activity in Nigeria is also being motivated by the upcoming elections (the country’s general elections are set to take place in February). Presidential candidates, including Muslims, are being attacked (former president Muhammadu Buhari, for example, who ruled the country from 1983 to 1985). The authorities are trying to fight Boko Haram, but their hands are tied by the constant hints resounding from the UN and, most importantly, the International Criminal Court, as well as warnings against the violation of human rights during anti-terrorist operations (6).

In recent months, BH militants have noticeably increased the size of the territory under their control. Recently captured towns include Buni Yadi (in Yobe State), Gamboru Ngala, Dikwa, Bama, Malam Fatori (in Borno State), and Maiha (in Adamawa State). A new system of government is being developed in the areas under BH control, and Sharia law is being established. In November 2014, the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, announced the creation of an Islamic caliphate. Its borders extend far beyond the boundaries of Nigeria into both Cameroon and Niger. The biggest terrorist attack in the whole bloody history of BH took place on 3 January 2015, when more than 200 people were slaughtered in the town of Baga.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has resulted in the virtual isolation of entire countries. Land and sea borders have been closed, and flights to and from these countries have been stopped. This area of total isolation includes Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Moreover, the victims of Ebola are not just those infected with the virus. Several dozen people have died as a result of clashes between police and demonstrators in various cities in both Liberia (including the capital Monrovia) and Sierra Leone. There is a state of emergency in place in all three of these countries, and elections in both Guinea and Liberia have been cancelled. At the same time, the Liberian parliament has refused to grant the country’s president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, additional emergency powers to help fight Ebola. 

All the old problems still remain, including transnational crime. The amount of drugs being seized by police is increasing, but this says more about the rise in their illegal transit than about the country’s success in combating drug trafficking. Attempts to save Guinea Bissau from the fate of becoming a channel for drug trafficking have not yet met with success. Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea is also flourishing…

The West Africa of today has become a major testing ground where a new model of global governance is being developed. A number of zones stand out that could later be extended into other territories. These include a zone for the West’s direct control over natural resources, which the jurisdiction of national governments does not cover; a zone for the safe transit of drugs; a zone for sea piracy (international racketeering as part of international trade); a zone for large-scale medical experiments; and a zone for all-out terror (for the purposes of intimidation, for example). As an alternative, there is the zone of new and relatively peaceful neo-colonialism, where direct foreign control will be offered in exchange for the protection of a territory from all of the above… It goes without saying that this system is not only being developed for Africa.

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Boko Harum (1) (usually translated as "Western education is a sin"), is a Salafi militant Islamist organization based in northern Nigeria and influenced by Wahhabi movement. (2)

Formally it was founded in 2009 to periodically stage local terrorist acts and attack Christian shrines. With every passing year their activities were becoming more frequent and well-planned encompassing the whole country. The group abruptly intensified actions including the neighboring Cameroon. 

This April Chibok kidnapping took place with over 280 schoolgirls snatched by the militants. The group wanted all its members behind bars to be set free. The government refused. Then the action was followed by a string of attacks against populated areas and police stations. Officials and many civilians lost their lives. In June a blast took place in the port of Lagos, the wave of terror hit the oil-rich shores of the Niger River. The end of July was real hot: terrorist acts became a routine matter. On July 27 – Kaduna bombing with the death toll of 50, on July 30 – at least six people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a college in northern Nigeria's biggest city, Kano. (3) On July 27 Boko Haram militants attacked the northern Cameroon town of Kolofata and seized several people including the wife of Cameroon's Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali. The official was taken away from the place by his guards. The mayor and his family were taken hostage. The clashes with the Cameroon army lasted for a few days…

* * *

How do the international community, Africa and Nigeria respond to the disastrous unfolding of the events? 

First, the United Nations Security Council has started to react. In 2014 the Council’s chairman has made a number of condemning statements. But there has been no resolution and it makes ask questions. In July the names of Boko Harum leaders (especially Abubakar Shekau) were blacklisted under the U.N. al Qaeda sanctions list. It means the United Nations considers Boko Harum to be part of Al Qaeda. 

Second, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger agreed to provide troops in order to stamp out Boko Haram. With each country contributing 700 troops each the force is strong enough. (4) Finally the United States State Department has listed Boko Harum as a foreign terrorist organization. This decision gives publicity to the group serving as a kind of advertisement to attract more recruits. 

The fact that Boko Harum has become an internationally known organization. This fact could be considered from two angles of view. 

The internal aspect is related to complicated state system of Nigeria with the population of hundreds of ethnic groups and clans living in 36 states. The structure is the legacy of British rule which had rich experience of drawing dividing (5) and coercively uniting borders to make live together the peoples who had had a long history of animosity towards each other. The independent Nigeria has faced the consequences of the British colonial policy a number of times. For instance, Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra (the Atlantic bay to its south). The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. The creation of the new state that was pushing for recognition was among the causes of the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War that took, according to different estimates, the lives of 1-3 million people. 

The aspiration for an independent Biafra is still alive. Before his death in late 2013 Chinua Achebe, the world-wide known Nigerian novelist, who was Igbo by nationality, devoted his last book which was called with obvious meaning There Was a Country. The book is in fact a lament for Biafra and the decline of Nigeria, which he relates directly to the Biafran war. It offers a future outlook. 

Half of a Yellow Sun is a novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. Published in 2006 by Knopf/Anchor, it tells the story of the Biafran War. The author also belongs to the people of Igbo. She wrote about the existence of a special Sun that shines not form the sky but from the banner of Biafra. The book has received many awards, including in Great Britain. It has just been translated into Russian – that’s good news… 

The external aspect is to great extent defined by the role of the International Criminal Court which is conducting an official investigation of the Boko Harum activities. Jonathan of Nigeria, the President of Nigeria, is invited as a witness. We believe it to be a grave mistake. Other countries have also faced the situation Nigeria has to tackle today. They have involved the International Criminal Court. For instance, Cote D’Ivoire has invited the Court to make an investigation. Now the President of the country Laurent Gbagbo is in Hague put behind bars. The same thing may be in store for Nigeria. For instance, the recent report by International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda says the crimes in Nigeria are committed not only by Boko Harum but also by government troops often in violation of human rights while fighting terrorists. The insinuation is clear, President Goodluck should simulate the fight but he will not be allowed to hold a real victory. The International Criminal Court is an instrument of global governance. Boko Harum and other terrorist organizations have a mission to destabilize Africa to prevent it from leaving behind the economic backwardness. 

What is the reason for making the activities of terrorists in Nigeria and in West Africa more vibrant? Many say it’s due to the system of clans. There are three major ethnic groups in Nigeria (6) and a lot of smaller ones. The groups come to power in rotation. The fragile pattern was broken after former President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, Hausa by origin, suddenly died in 2010 (being only 58). As a result then Vice President Jonathan Goodluck (Yoruba) stepped in as an interim President to win the next presidential election. In 2015 the country will hold another presidential election. Goodluck is among the hopefuls. The intensification of terrorist activities could be a way to pressure him into rejecting his office in favor of someone who belongs to the Hausa tribe. There are attempts made to make people believe that a Hausa Muslim could tackle the problem of Boko Harum. (7) 

The religious and ethnic aspects do play some role but not the decisive one. We believe the main reason for the deterioration of the situation in Nigeria is abruptly stated rapid economic growth. It’s worth to note that the terrorist activities intensified at the time of Nigeria becoming the leading economy in Africa (at the start of 2014) leaving behind the main competitor – the economically strong South Africa. It may not suit the plans of those who stand in the way of progress. 

The Boko Harum escalated its activities right at the time the situation in Africa started to seriously deteriorate. The regime of global governance has reasons for concern: the Africa’s GDP growth (8) has been 5, 6 % during the recent ten years against 3, 8% in the world. (9) It was only 1, 1% in eurozone. The economic reasons give rise to the new wave of destabilization in Africa. 

In 2013 such countries as Mali, the Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Somalia, Kenia and some other stares faced great difficulties. No matter that, the growth of Africa’s GDP was 5, 7% by far exceeding the world average of 4, 1%. It means the pressure on Africa will grow including terrorist activities. 

* * *

In 1984 the book Nigeria on Fire in Russian written by former President of the country Olusegun Obasanjo hit the bookstore shelves in 1984. The book describes the war in Biafra, the operations of federal troops and the aid provided by the Soviet Union. Thirty years have passed. Nigeria is hit by fire again. The fire has spread to other countries and is threatening the whole continent. Though the continent is an intermediate goal, Boko Harum fights to make the whole world a caliphate without any borders. 

What is the target of possible US intervention? There may be some guesses here. 

Libya

On Sept. 11, 2012, US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed by extremists in the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi. Last October, about 200 Marines from the task force also flew to Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily for several weeks after U.S. special operations forces captured a senior al Qaeda figure in Libya triggering unrest. Today Libya is gripped by political turmoil that has left the government struggling to assert its authority over armed groups and Islamists. Libya's oil infrastructure remains the target of protests and shutdowns as former rebels refuse to recognize the state's authority. 

On May 18 the forces loyal to rogue Libyan General Hifter attacked the country’s parliament forcing lawmakers to flee. The assault was allegedly targeted against Islamists who tried to protect the extremist militias now plaguing the nation. The attack was met with resistance from other troops. General Hifter is carrying out an offensive against Islamist militias in Benghazi, the country’s second-largest city in the east. He says the central government and parliament have no mandate and vowed to press on with his operation after authorities called it a coup. Libya’s parliament is divided between Islamist and non-Islamist forces that have had disagreements over government appointments and holding new elections. The new interim prime minister has not yet named a Cabinet.

Nigeria

On Saturday, May 17 French President Francois Hollande hosted a security summit in Paris to discuss the situation in Nigeria after the Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram abducted over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok in northern Nigeria on April 14. The summit was attended by officials from France, the United States, Great Britain, Nigeria itself and former French colonies: Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin. The participants expressed readiness to join efforts against Boco Harum. The group reportedly collaborates with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a force operating throughout northwest Africa that is fighting French troops in Mali. AQIM itself has been strengthened by aid from Libyan Islamist militias that Washington and Paris armed and helped put in power during the 2011 NATO war in Libya. US officials participating in the summit openly referred to the Western forces already operating on the ground in order to pressure the Nigerian regime to attack Boko Haram more forcefully. For instance, US under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman noted that the US has an «interagency team» in Nigeria. According to Sherman, the US force in Nigeria is working with French and British forces: «We are making sure that our assets are deployed in a coordinated way».

The US is already conducting surveillance flights over Nigeria. It had sent a team of «advisors» there in the run-up to the Paris summit. The team is based in Abuja and includes officials from the State Department, the Pentagon, the US military’s Africa Command, and the FBI. French, UK, Canadian and Israeli military personnel are already in Nigeria in the capacity of advisers. 

The US has assisted France with logistics and intelligence as Paris launched interventions in Ivory Coast, Mali and the Central African Republic. Extending such wars to Nigeria, a huge country of 169 million people, would signify an large-scale escalation. 

Nigeria is the largest country in Africa. It boasts 174 million of population and the largest gross domestic product on the continent. It is also Africa’s second (after Angola) largest oil producer, the eighth largest world exporter accounting for 5 percent of US oil imports. It is also the fourth largest liquefied natural gas exporter in the world. There have been calls from members of Congress for a more aggressive US intervention, including from Senator Susan Collins (Republican of Maine), who demanded that US Special Forces troops be sent to rescue the girls.

Obama, in an interview with ABC News, suggested that the US intervention against Boko Haram would expand, declaring that «this may be the event that helps to mobilize the entire international community to finally do something against this horrendous organization that perpetrated such a terrible crime».

South Sudan

The United States called on May 14 for an immediate deployment of African troops to safeguard a fragile peace deal reached in Addis Ababa last week by warring sides in South Sudan. Fighting broke out again on May 18 almost immediately after the truce was reached. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, said troops can help ensure that peace holds this time. «We have to work closely with the leaders of the region to make sure that we get IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa) troops on the ground, who will be put in the position so that they can monitor the agreement and ensure that anyone who is involved in breaking that agreement will be held responsible», she said.

Washington is seeking a UN resolution «that will allow these troops to deploy as quickly as possible», Thomas-Greenfield noted. The United States, a key backer of South Sudan's push for independence from Khartoum, has poured hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the country since it split from Sudan in 2011. It lobbied intensely for the peace deal.

Among other things Sudan is Beijing’s primary oil source in Africa which accounted for 8 percent of China’s total oil imports (China being the recipient of 78% of total Sudanese exports).

Forces in stand-by mode

The US has intensified military expansion in Africa in recent years. The Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Initiative launched in 2005 was to boost political and military clout. It was incorporated into the United States Africa Command in 2008 with its scope of activity to be tremendously broadened in the following years. Vice-Admiral Robert Moeller, former deputy AFRICOM commander in 2010, «Let there be no mistake. AFRICOM’s job is to protect American lives and promote American interests».

In 2013 alone, AFRICOM conducted joint exercises with fourteen African nations, leading land, sea, and air-based operations carrying out a total of 546 «military activities» which is an average of one and half military missions a day. In 2013, American troops had on or another form of temporary presence in Niger, Uganda, Ghana, Malawi, Burundi, Mauritania, South Africa, Chad, Togo, Cameroon, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Lesotho, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and South Sudan.

Opposing China – real reason behind stated goals

In 2013, when trade between the China and Africa soared to a record total of $200 billion including a 44 percent spurt in Chinese direct investment in Africa. US trade with Africa, but only in goods, not services, totaled $85 billion in 2013. Services amounted to about another $11 billion. European trade with Africa reached $137 billion in 2013. China is rapidly challenging US economic hegemony in Africa. Having invested in a variety of sectors from mining and oil, to telecommunications and banking, China has made itself into a viable alternative to the US. All over Africa, the United States has tried to check the growing influence of China. It’s easy to see what’s driving the US policy on the continent. Remembering Bill Clinton «It's the economy, stupid». The planned military interventions are part of larger geopolitical game…

While U.S. leaders like President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and others continue to kowtow to Saudi Arabia’s misogynist princelings, including the head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has ruled that families of the victims of the 9/11 attack can sue the government of Saudi Arabia for providing material support to the hijackers. In 2005, a federal judge dismissed plaintiff claims against Saudi Arabia ruling that Saudi Arabia enjoyed immunity from such claims pursuant to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. That decision has not been overturned by the federal appellate court.

The court ruling came shortly after former Florida Senator Bob Graham, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at the time of the 9/11 attack, once again called for the declassification of 28 pages of the 800-page «Joint Inquiry Into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001,» issued by the Senate and House intelligence oversight committees in 2002. The blacked out 28 pages lays responsibility for the worst terrorist attack on American soil on the doorstep of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, particularly Prince Bandar and his Washington embassy. 

Prince Bandar and his wife paid the San Diego handler of two of the hijackers, Osama Bassnan, through an account at Riggs Bank in Washington. There are now bipartisan calls in Congress for the 28 pages to be declassified. However, the Saudis, who have close ties with the Bush oligarchy and the Israelis, can use their clout to suppress the «smoking gun» U.S. intelligence evidence against them.

It also behooves the American «deep state» to allow the Saudis to continue their support for terrorism because it gives the U.S. military and intelligence community as casus belli for continued military intervention in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Saudi Wahhabist fingerprints are being found more and more behind the coordinated activities of anti-Christian and anti-Western Salafist groups in Africa. The Nigerian Salafist group Boko Haram, which has attacked Christian villages and moderate Islamic mosques throughout Nigeria and slaughtered Christian and moderate Muslim men, women, and children, made common cause with another Salafist group in Mali, Ansar Dine, in attacking moderate Tuaregs who took over control of northern Mali after a military coup deposed the country’s civilian leadership. Boko Haram, Ansar Dine, and Al Qaeda in the Maghreb began systematically destroying ancient UNESCO-protected shrines of Sufi Muslim saints in Timbuktu and other Malian cities. Ansar Dine pronounced the shrines «haram» of forbidden, according to Salafist dogma.

Boko Haram has also appeared on the scene in the Central African Republic where Muslim Seleka guerrillas helped topple the government of President Francois Bozize and installed one of their own, Michel Djotodia in power in a country where Muslims make up only 15 percent of the population. No sooner had Djotodia and Seleka cemented their hold on the government in the capital of Bangui, Seleka guerrillas began attacking Christians throughout the country, pillaging their villages. Bozize loyalists organized «anti-Balaka,» which means «anti-machete» because many of the Seleka Salafists wield machetes in killing Christians, including women and children. The arrival of 2000 French troops in Bangui did little to assuage the fears of the Christian majority in the country. The Saudis are also fond of blades in carrying out murder. The Saudi government’s preferred execution method for convicted criminals is a sword to the back of the neck on Riyadh’s infamous Deera Square, also known as «Chop Chop Square.»

Attracted by the nation’s oil boom, a large influx of Muslims from abroad have migrated to Angola to work in the oil infrastructure. When, at the end of November of this year Angolan authorities issued requirements for hastily-built mosques to comply with the country’s building registration laws, Salafist interests spread the rumor that Angola was banning Islam and indiscriminately closing mosques. The Angolan government denied the charge. 

The Angolan government announcement may have been too little and too late for the Angolan and other passengers, as well as six crew, aboard Mozambique Airlines flight TM470, which crashed in Namibia while en route from Maputo, Mozambique to Luanda, the Angolan capital. Investigators concluded that the Embraer 190’s captain, Herminio dos Santos Fernandes, tampered with the plane’s autopilot to deliberately crash the plane into the ground. However, investigators failed to consider that many Salafists decided to declare war on Angola after the false rumors were disseminated that Angola had «banned Islam.» 

The lessons of EgyptAir 990, which crashed in 1999 en route from the New York to Cairo, should have been germane. The captain of the EgyptAir Boeing 767 was said to have deliberately crashed his plane into the Atlantic in an act of suicide terrorism, killing all 217 people aboard. But many believe the plane had been tampered with and was used as a dry-run for the 9/11 attack two years later. The plane’s co-pilot, Gameel Al-Batouti was said to have commandeered the controls of the plane to commit suicide and mass murder in the same manner that Mozambique Airlines’s Captain Fernandes was said to have done with his aircraft en route to Luanda.

However, with the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, several members of Congress, and a federal judge all pointing to Saudi Arabia as the culprit behind the aviation terrorism of 9/11, a Saudi hand cannot be ruled out being involved in either the EgyptAir 990 or Mozambique Airlines 470 «suicide crashes.»

In Zanzibar, the Saudi-supported Salafists have taken a different tack. Saudi-financed local clerics have formed Uamsho, which has called for acid attacks on foreign tourists such as that committed against two 18-year old British female teachers last August. Uamsho, which is Swahili for «Awakening,» has also claimed credit for brutal acid attacks on Christian and moderate Muslim clerics. 

Saudi-backed Salafists have also attacked Christians in other parts of Africa, particularly in Egypt, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Bandar, the Saudi intelligence chief, reportedly warned Russia that Saudi Arabia would not hesitate to set loose Chechen and other Salafists on the Winter Olympiad in Sochi if Russia did not cut ioff aid to Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria. Saudi handicraft was also seen in Salafist bombings of St. Theresa's Catholic Church, outside of Abuja, Nigeria; Our Lady of Salvation Catholic Church in Baghdad; and Saints Church in Alexandria, Egypt. In the case of the Alexandria bombing, Israeli intelligence was also fingered with the Saudis in the attack, an insidious alliance that legitimate researchers of the 9/11 attack have become all-too-familiar with. 

Saudi Arabia cannot escape responsibility for attacks on Christians, moderate Muslims, Shi’as, Ahmaddiyas, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, and others around the world. One of Saudi King Abdullah’s cabinet advisers in the Salafist Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah Aal al-Sheikh. The «holy man» urged his followers to blow up churches outside of Saudi Arabia. President Obama and his top officials, including CIA director John Brennan, have gone to great lengths to appease Saudi terrorism. If the United States truly wants to put a dent in international terrorism, especially in Africa, a couple of well-placed U.S. cruise missile strikes on a few Saudi palaces in Riyadh and Jeddah ought to do the trick.