Welcome to the Jungle: Nigerian military crushes Islamic militants
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- HardPower
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Earlier this week, Boko Haram, an Islamist group in northern Nigeria started waging war against police and military targets. Unfortunately for them, the Nigerian military was ruthless, and massacred the rebels. The attacks started in Bauchi, but ended in Maiduguri, when Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of Boko Haram, was killed. The tactics in African civil conflicts are usually not pretty, and may involve going to a mosque and killing everyone there, as happened on Friday with at least 100 dead. Almost all of the 300 dead this week from fighting have been militants.
Nigeria is a country perpetually in conflict with itself. Religion is a major flashpoint, as a variety of sects of Christianity, Islam, and traditional religions play very local, very important roles in peoples lives. Poverty is everywhere, so life is cheap. And whatever group can gain control of oilwells can find themselves unimaginably rich. The former British colony combines so many ethnic groups that the only legitimacy the government can try to claim is monopoly of force. At they try to claim this as brutally as possible.
Nigeria is a country perpetually in conflict with itself. Religion is a major flashpoint, as a variety of sects of Christianity, Islam, and traditional religions play very local, very important roles in peoples lives. Poverty is everywhere, so life is cheap. And whatever group can gain control of oilwells can find themselves unimaginably rich. The former British colony combines so many ethnic groups that the only legitimacy the government can try to claim is monopoly of force. At they try to claim this as brutally as possible.
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- Hard Power
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- tags:
- Nigeria, Rebels, Islamist, hard power, 1 more
