The Boko Haram Thread

ponder said:
Did that happen with the Yugoslav wars? Some major atrocities happened there.
Click to expand...

I don't know how relevant is to the CA forum a war which happened 15-20 years ago but here is a sobering thought: In the entire Yugoslav wars about 135k people died. The wars spread over more then 8 years. The average dead rate was just over 40 bodies a day. You think is bad? I think so too BUT just have a look how many civilians die every day in South Africa and our war just keeps on going without any hope for peace. And sorry for the off topic.
 
Hoekachaka said:
I don't know how relevant is to the CA forum a war which happened 15-20 years ago but here is a sobering thought: In the entire Yugoslav wars about 135k people died. The wars spread over more then 8 years. The average dead rate was just over 40 bodies a day. You think is bad? I think so too BUT just have a look how many civilians die every day in South Africa and our war just keeps on going without any hope for peace. And sorry for the off topic.
Click to expand...

How many civilians die in SA every day ?

What is the size of SA vs Yugoslav ?
 
Nerfherder said:
How many civilians die in SA every day ?
Click to expand...

OT , but here : Homocides

1994 -pop 38.28 mil - H per 100 000, 66.9 - total 25609 - 97 per day.
1995 -pop 39.12 mil - H per 100 000, 67.9 - total 26562 - 72 per day
1996 -pop 40.00 mil - H per 100 000, 62.8 - totat 25120 - 68 per day
1997 -pop 40.93 mil - H per 100 000, 59.5 - total 24353 - 66 per day
1998 -pop 41.90 mil - H per 100 000, 59.8 - total 25056 - 68 per day
1999 -pop 42.92 mil - H per 100 000, 52.5 - total 22522 - 61 per day
2000 -pop 44.00 mil - H per 100 000, 49.8 - total 21912 - 60 per day
2001 -pop 44.91 mil - H per 100 000, 47.8 - total 21462 - 58 per day
2002 -pop 45.81 mil - H per 100 000, 47.4 - total 21709 - 59 per day
2003 -pop 46.41 mil - H per 100 000, 42.7 - total 19684 - 53 per day
2004 -pop 47.02 mil - H per 100 000, 40.3 - total 18941 - 51 per day
2005 -pop 47.64 mil - H per 100 000, 39.6 - total 18849 - 51 per day
2006 -pop 48.27 mil - H per 100 000, 40.5 - total 19521 - 53 per day
2007 -pop 48.91 mil - H per 100 000, 38.6 - total 18875 - 51 per day
2008 -pop 49.56 mil - H per 100 000, 37.3 - total 18463 - 50 per day
2009 -pop 50.22 mil - H per 100 000, 34.1 - total 17118 - 46 per day
2010 -pop 50.90 mil - H per 100 000, 31.9 - total 16237 - 44 per day

2011 -pop 51.58 mil - H - total 15604 - 42 per day
2012 -pop 52.27 mil - H - total 16259 - 44 per day
2013 -pop 52.98 mil - H - total 17068 - 46 per day

List compiled from :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_South_Africa
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/arti...ial-crime-statistics-for-201314/#.VLePmix3JfA
http://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-south-africas-official-crime-statistics-for-201213/
http://mg.co.za/article/2014-09-22-factsheet-south-africas-official-crime-stats-unpacked/

In a ten year period from 1994 - 2003 we lost 233989 of our fellow citizens to homocide alone.

Let me put that into context :

The Vietnam War - total dead and wounded Americans - 211,454 - average 11 killed per day

WW1 , Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa combined - military total killed 154723, split four ways over 4 years average 26 per day

When casualties of war figures pale in comparison to the national murder rate then something is FUBAR
 
AMNESTY SAYS SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW NIGERIAN DESTRUCTION

Large areas of Nigerian towns attacked by Islamic extremists were razed to the ground in a widespread campaign of destruction, according to satellite images released Thursday by Amnesty International.

Amnesty International said the detailed images of Baga and Doron Baga, taken before and after the attack earlier this month, show that more than 3,700 structures were damaged or completely destroyed.

The images were taken Jan. 2 and Jan. 7, Amnesty International said. Boko Haram fighters seized a military base in Baga on Jan. 3 and, according to witnesses, killed hundreds of civilians in the ensuing days.

Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for the human rights group, said in a statement that the assault on the two towns was the largest and most destructive of all the Boko Haram assaults analyzed by Amnesty International.

The group said interviews with witnesses as well as local government officials and human rights activists suggest hundreds of civilians were shot; last week, the human rights group noted reports of as many as 2,000 dead. The Nigerian military has cited a figure of 150 dead, including slain militants.

Nigeria's home-grown Boko Haram group drew international condemnation when its fighters kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from a boarding school in northeast Chibok town last year. Dozens escaped but 219 remain missing.


Source : Sapa-AP /kd
Date : 15 Jan 2015 16:46
 
Nanfeishen said:
In a ten year period from 1994 - 2003 we lost 233989 of our fellow citizens to homocide alone.

Let me put that into context :

The Vietnam War - total dead and wounded Americans - 211,454 - average 11 killed per day

WW1 , Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa combined - military total killed 154723, split four ways over 4 years average 26 per day

When selective casualties of war figures pale in comparison to the national murder rate then something is FUBAR
Click to expand...

You have cherry picked your stats quite nicely there to support your point there. Why don't you include Vietnamese civilians as "casualties of war" or are those ignorable? And why don't you use the total military casualties for WW1....pick either side.
 
imranpanji said:
You have cherry picked your stats quite nicely there to support your point there. Why don't you include Vietnamese civilians as "casualties of war" or are those ignorable? And why don't you use the total military casualties for WW1....pick either side.
Click to expand...

Do your own homework :

1994 - 2013 = 20 years of Democracy - 410924 murdered by some or other form of low life.

A figure comparable to many of the figures from some of the worlds major conflicts of the last hundred years.

WW1 - 4 years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties

WW2 - 6 years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

The 2 more relevant ones due to their length :

Vietnam - 21 years - there is a table showing low and high estimates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties

Angolan Civil War - 26 years - Over 500,000 civilians dead **
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angolan_Civil_War

** With the current trend in numbers in 6 years we will pass the 500 000 mark on Homocides.
 
NIGERIAN ARMY KILLS 42 BOKO HARAM FIGHTERS

The Nigerian army killed 42 fighters from the radical Islamist group Boko Haram when repelling its attempt to take over the north-eastern town of Biu, the daily Premium Times reported Thursday.

The Boko Haram members - who were killed on Tuesday - included 15 Chadians, said Mike Omeri, coordinator of the National Information Centre. It was the first official release of the death toll numbers.

Omeri said five insurgents were also captured while fleeing the town.

"Those found to have conducted any crime against the state will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Premium Times quoted Omeri as saying.

It was not known if the army had suffered casualties.

President Goodluck Jonathan meanwhile visited Maiduguri, which has often been targeted by Boko Haram, telling soldiers the government had not shied away from its responsibility of protecting Nigerians.

"In terms of equipment and logistics, we have already made considerable progress since the insurgency started and we will continue to improve in that regard until your operations are successfully concluded," he said.

Jonathan's visit was seen by analysts as a bid for votes in next month's general elections.

"Nigerians have been dying on a daily basis in three states of the north-east being battered by Boko Haram, without the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces making out time to visit any of these places," journalist Mohammed Salihu told dpa from Maiduguri by phone.

"Nigerians are no fools, this visit now does not impress anyone," he added.

Satellite images released by the rights group Amnesty International indicated that recent attacks by Boko Haram may have killed many more people than the government has said.

The government says about 150 people were killed in attacks that started in Baga in the north-east on January 3, downplaying reports that put the death toll at 2,000.

The images published by Amnesty showed that the neighbouring towns of Baga or Doron Baga were largely destroyed, with more than 3,700 structures damaged or burned down.

"These detailed images show devastation of catastrophic proportions in two towns," with Doron Baga almost completely wiped off the map, said Daniel Eyre, a Nigeria researcher with Amnesty.

Interviews with witnesses, officials and human rights activists suggest that Boko Haram shot hundreds of civilians.

"There were bodies everywhere we looked," one woman told the rights group. Another witness said the insurgents killed even small children and a woman who was in labour.

Eyre said the images suggested a "much higher" death toll than that given by the Nigerian government.

The attacks sent thousands of people fleeing to neighbouring countries.

Boko Haram, which wants to establish an Islamist state, killed thousands of people in northern Nigeria last year alone.


Source : Sapa-dpa /aw
Date : 16 Jan 2015 00:29
 
INTERNATIONAL FORCE MULLED TO FIGHT BOKO HARAM IN NIGERIA

As Islamic militants from Boko Haram step up attacks in Nigeria that have led to the slaughter of more civilians, there is increasing talk that international military action, possibly including a multinational force, may be needed to help crush the insurgency in Africa's most populous country.

The debate has taken on new urgency since Jan. 3, when Boko Haram extremists swept into the northeastern town of Baga in Borno state, overran a military base and, according to witnesses, killed hundreds of civilians in the days that followed. It was one of the most brazen assaults since militants kidnapped nearly 300 girls last year, setting off an international outcry.

Amnesty International has released satellite images showing widespread destruction - with about 3,700 structures damaged or destroyed - but the horrifying picture of the attack is incomplete because aid workers, journalists and others cannot reach the Boko Haram-controlled area. Extremists, who encountered resistance from civilian militias in Baga, systematically slaughtered civilians in what analysts believe was retaliation for their defiance.

Boko Haram's message, according to analyst Matthew Henman, was: "If you organize these militias against us, this is the response that you will receive."

President Goodluck Jonathan, who is running for re-election next month, visited Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, on Thursday in his first trip to the northeast since a state of emergency was imposed in May 2014.

His office said in a statement that he met with troops involved in fighting the extremists as part of his "surprise visit." He also visited hundreds of civilians who were staying in a camp in Maiduguri after fleeing Baga.

Nigeria's neighbors are already being shaken by Boko Haram's territorial expansion. Niger, Chad and Cameroon have seen flows of refugees into their countries. In the case of Cameroon, there even have been some cross-border attacks.

Boko Haram is believed to funnel fighters and equipment across borders; previously, a multinational garrison in Baga was tasked with thwarting frontier smuggling and, increasingly, the activities of Islamic insurgents.

"It's a double win" for Boko Haram, which now has greater border mobility and has stripped its military opponents of an important outpost, said Henman, manager of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre in London. He said the Nigerian extremists are likely aware of the gains in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State group, and may "see similar potential for themselves."

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond discussed a special initiative to deal with Boko Haram, but he did not elaborate.

Speaking in Sofia, Bulgaria, Kerry said Boko Haram is "without question one of the most evil and threatening terrorist entities on the planet," and that the killing in northeastern Nigeria is a "crime against humanity" and must be addressed.

The United States and other countries offered training and other assistance to the Nigerian military after Boko Haram seized 276 girls from a boarding school in April, but most of them remain missing.

The deployment of a multinational force to fight Boko Haram does not appear imminent and would take considerable political will, in addition to needing a green light from a Nigerian government that has appeared leery at times of perceived foreign meddling. However, a United Nations official said Wednesday there will be a meeting Jan. 20 in Niger's capital, Niamey, to explore the idea of a regional force to confront Nigeria's militants.

Neighboring governments are reportedly talking about sending about 3,000 troops to the West African nation, with a mandate to recover territory from Boko Haram, the U.N. official said on condition of anonymity because the diplomat was not authorized to disclose private discussions. The operation would be supported by the African Union and potentially "blessed" by the U.N. Security Council, the official said at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Regional leaders pledged to cooperate against Boko Haram at an October meeting in Niger.

There are precedents for military intervention in African conflicts. In 2013, France sent troops to battle Islamic insurgents in Mali after the government there asked for help. African Union troops have retaken territory from al-Shabab fighters in Somalia in past years.

Nigeria's conflict has been seen in some circles as a local problem, keeping it relatively low on the international agenda. Its military has struggled with corruption, low morale, equipment shortages and allegations of human rights violations. Jonathan has played down the fight with Boko Haram in his campaign for re-election.

Any nations that send forces to Nigeria would do so after deciding it is in their self-interest, said Jens David Ohlin, a professor at Cornell Law School in the United States. Nigeria, he said, faces the "classic conundrum" of a nation that needs help but worries intervention will threaten its sovereignty.

"In a situation like this, there has to be some kind of international response," Ohlin said. "That's the only way to stop it."


Source : Sapa-AP /nsm
Date : 15 Jan 2015 22:18
 
NIGERIA AND AU MUST TAKE URGENT STEPS: COUNCIL

The General Council of the Bar of SA (GCB) has called on Nigeria and the African Union to take urgent steps against Boko Haram for its mounting crimes against humanity.

"The GCB is concerned at the mounting evidence of serious crimes against humanity including mass murder, rape and persecution, committed by the armed group Boko Haram in north east Nigeria," its chairman Jeremy Muller SC said in a statement on Friday.

"The slaughter of unarmed civilians, last year's mass abduction of young schoolgirls, and the systematic attacks on schools constitute serious violations of Article Seven of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and grave breaches of the convention on the rights of the child," he said.

Article Seven of the statute states that crimes against humanity are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population with knowledge of the attack.

Crimes against humanity are listed as murder, extermination, enslavement, imprisonment, deportation or forced transfer of population, torture, rape or sexual slavery, persecution against a group, and the disappearance of people.

Various media agencies reported that Boko Haram launched a string of attacks in Baga on January 3, killing about 2000 people and resulting in thousands fleeing to neighbouring countries.

However, Nigeria's government said the death toll was no more than 150 people.

The German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported that Boko Haram wanted to create an Islamist state, and killed more than 3000 people last year.

Muller said the council wanted the Nigerian government and the AU to take urgent and effective steps to ensure the perpetrators were brought to justice.

"The first weeks of 2015 have seen a disturbing escalation of Boko Haram's increasing onslaught against civilian populations, with several towns and villages... being attacked and razed to the ground," he said.

Muller also welcomed the South African government's condemnation of the attacks.


Source : Sapa /mar/cls/ks
Date : 16 Jan 2015 11:45
 
Condemning the attacks and actively trying to stop them are two different things.
 
REPORT: BOKO HARAM KIDNAPS 80 IN CAMEROON

The Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram on Sunday kidnapped about 80 people in northern Cameroon, the website Cameroon-Info and Radio France Internationale reported.

Hundreds of insurgents attacked two villages in Mokolo district near the Nigerian border, Cameroon-Info said. The Cameroonian army launched a counter attack and the insurgents kidnapped 80 people before returning to Nigeria.

The villages were burned down and three residents were killed.

Chadian troops entered Cameroon on Saturday to help the country fight Boko Haram, which killed thousands of people in northern Nigeria last year.


Source : Sapa-dpa /nsm
Date : 18 Jan 2015 20:51
 
10,000 CAMEROONIANS FLEE INLAND AFTER BOKO HARAM ATTACKS

Cameroon's government says that more than 10,000 panic-stricken Cameroonians have fled areas that border Nigeria for safer locations in the wake of attacks by Nigeria's Islamic militant group Boko Haram.

The minister of territorial administration and decentralization Rene Emmanuel Sadi said Tuesday a humanitarian food crisis looms because the extremist insurgents have looted food and livestock.

Cameroon's minister of education Monouna Fotso said more than 10 schools had been deserted since Sunday's attack on Mabass village in northern Cameroon in which three people were killed and dozens kidnapped. He said that 140 schools have closed because of the attacks. Fotso said the government is trying to accommodate the affected students.

Boko Haram has, in the past month, raided at least two dozen villages and towns in Cameroon.


Source : Sapa-AP /kd
Date : 20 Jan 2015 18:13
 
NIGERIA'S BOKO HARAM LEADER CLAIMS BAGA MASSACRE
APNewsNow

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has claimed responsibility for the mass killings in the northeast Nigerian town of Baga and has threatened more violence.

The acknowledgment from the leader of Nigeria's Islamic extremists comes in a video posted on YouTube Tuesday, the same day International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she is examining the allegations and will prosecute those most responsible for war crimes.

According to a translation from Arabic provided by SITE Intelligence Group, Shekau says: "We are the ones who fought the people of Baga, and we have killed them with such a killing."

Amnesty International says as many as 2,000 civilians were killed and 3,700 homes and business were destroyed in the Jan. 3 attack. Baga and a key military base remain under Boko Haram's control.


Source : Sapa-AP /gf
Date : 21 Jan 2015 09:17
 
BOKO HARAM ATTACKS NORTHEASTERN NIGERIAN CITY, SCORES KILLED

In fierce fighting Sunday that killed more than 200 combatants, Nigerian troops clashed with Islamic extremists who attacked Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeastern Nigeria, from three fronts.

At the same time the insurgents continued scorched-earth attacks on villages some 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the south in Adamawa state, slitting throats of residents, looting and burning homes and abducting dozens of trapped women and children, according to Vandu Kainu and other escaping survivors.

Adamawa state legislator Adamu Kamale appealed for troops to protect civilians in Michika, where six villages are under attack. "The attacks have continued since Friday with no presence of security operatives," he complained.

The multiple attacks come as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital nearly 1,000 miles (more than 1,500 kilometers) southwest of Maiduguri, to encourage peaceful elections on Feb. 14 in Africa's most populous country.

"This will be the largest democratic election on the continent," Kerry said. "Given the stakes, it's absolutely critical that these elections be conducted peacefully - that they are credible, transparent and accountable."

Kerry met with President Goodluck Jonathan and his chief rival candidate, former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari. Kerry told reporters afterward that he won pledges from both to refrain from violence.

He also issued a warning: Anyone responsible for inciting post-election mayhem will be barred entry to the United States, where millions of Nigerians live.

Kerry promised more U.S. support in the fight against Boko Haram if the elections take place peacefully and democratically.

More than 800 people were killed in northern protests after Buhari, a Muslim northerner, lost 2011 elections to Jonathan, a Christian from the south.

Boko Haram has denounced democracy and wants to make an Islamic state of Nigeria, whose population of about 170 million is divided almost equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south.

In Maiduguri, troops blocked roads into the city, which also prevented civilians from escaping.

Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade said Sunday evening that troops successfully repelled attacks on Maiduguri and Konduga, 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the southeast.

But he said they were mounting air raids in Monduno, a town 140 kilometers (88 miles) northeast of Maiduguri, which Boko Haram seized Sunday morning.

More than 200 combatants died Sunday, mainly insurgents, according to soldiers and civilian self-defense fighters who counted bodies. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to reporters.

President Jonathan made a surprise visit to Maiduguri 10 days ago and pledged to crush the insurgents. But his repeated promises are ringing hollow as Boko Haram since August has seized and kept control of large swaths of the northeast, including key border crossings into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

With encouragement from the United Nations, Nigeria and its neighbors are setting up a multinational force to fight the extremists who recently have increased cross-border raids into Cameroon.

But there is distrust of Nigeria's military, which many believe is infiltrated by Boko Haram at the highest levels.

The Maiduguri attack is not unexpected. Boko Haram on Jan. 3 seized a key military base and Baga town on the border with Cameroon, killing hundreds of civilians and leaving the main road open to Maiduguri. The military said they were counter-attacking a week ago. But escaping civilians said there was no fighting and the insurgents retain their control.

Maiduguri is the birthplace of Boko Haram and has been attacked many times in the 5-year Islamic insurgency that killed 10,000 people last year.


Source : Sapa-AP /nsm
Date : 26 Jan 2015 00:42
 
Nanfeishen said:
OT , but here : Homocides

1994 -pop 38.28 mil - H per 100 000, 66.9 - total 25609 - 97 per day.
1995 -pop 39.12 mil - H per 100 000, 67.9 - total 26562 - 72 per day
1996 -pop 40.00 mil - H per 100 000, 62.8 - totat 25120 - 68 per day
1997 -pop 40.93 mil - H per 100 000, 59.5 - total 24353 - 66 per day
1998 -pop 41.90 mil - H per 100 000, 59.8 - total 25056 - 68 per day
1999 -pop 42.92 mil - H per 100 000, 52.5 - total 22522 - 61 per day
2000 -pop 44.00 mil - H per 100 000, 49.8 - total 21912 - 60 per day
2001 -pop 44.91 mil - H per 100 000, 47.8 - total 21462 - 58 per day
2002 -pop 45.81 mil - H per 100 000, 47.4 - total 21709 - 59 per day
2003 -pop 46.41 mil - H per 100 000, 42.7 - total 19684 - 53 per day
2004 -pop 47.02 mil - H per 100 000, 40.3 - total 18941 - 51 per day
2005 -pop 47.64 mil - H per 100 000, 39.6 - total 18849 - 51 per day
2006 -pop 48.27 mil - H per 100 000, 40.5 - total 19521 - 53 per day
2007 -pop 48.91 mil - H per 100 000, 38.6 - total 18875 - 51 per day
2008 -pop 49.56 mil - H per 100 000, 37.3 - total 18463 - 50 per day
2009 -pop 50.22 mil - H per 100 000, 34.1 - total 17118 - 46 per day
2010 -pop 50.90 mil - H per 100 000, 31.9 - total 16237 - 44 per day

2011 -pop 51.58 mil - H - total 15604 - 42 per day
2012 -pop 52.27 mil - H - total 16259 - 44 per day
2013 -pop 52.98 mil - H - total 17068 - 46 per day

List compiled from :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_South_Africa
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/arti...ial-crime-statistics-for-201314/#.VLePmix3JfA
http://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-south-africas-official-crime-statistics-for-201213/
http://mg.co.za/article/2014-09-22-factsheet-south-africas-official-crime-stats-unpacked/

In a ten year period from 1994 - 2003 we lost 233989 of our fellow citizens to homocide alone.

Let me put that into context :

The Vietnam War - total dead and wounded Americans - 211,454 - average 11 killed per day

WW1 , Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa combined - military total killed 154723, split four ways over 4 years average 26 per day

When casualties of war figures pale in comparison to the national murder rate then something is FUBAR
Click to expand...

Im pretty impressed how much it has come down since 1994. Wow, thats a big turn around.
 
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