Nigeria suffers the worst terrorist attack of the year
More than a hundred people have been killed this past weekend in northwest Nigeria, near Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. According to a statement by Edward Kallon, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, "Armed men carried out an attack on civilians working in the rice fields of Koshobe, causing at least 110 deaths and as many injuries". This attack is the bloodiest so far this year in the country, which has suffered the scourge of terrorism in this north-western region for almost two decades, though especially since 2009.
No claim have yet been made, so it is not certain whether the attack is on Boko Haram or on the Islamic State in the West Africa Province (ISWAP). Nor does the United Nations' statment specify this. However, the leader of one of the self-defence militias present in the area, Babakura Kolo, stated that the attack has the identity of Boko Haram, who already carried out an attack of similar characteristics last June, in which the balance was 70 dead. At the beginning, the members of the pro-government militia found 43 dead bodies with their throats cut, but the number increased to at least double.
According to the International Observatory for the Study of Terrorism, Nigeria is experiencing a further increase in the number of terrorist attacks in October compared to September and August, 31 as opposed to 22 and 17 respectively, with the ISWAP group playing a more prominent role than Boko Haram. 2020 is proving to be a very active year in terms of the number of terrorist attacks carried out in the country if we consider last year's figures, 2019, when the peak in the number of attacks in a single month occurred in February, with 18 attacks.
Looking to the 2020 Global Terrorism Index, which reflects the situation and trend of terrorism over the past year, Nigeria witnessed a notable drop in violence compared to 2018, with a reduction of nearly 40% in the number of deaths. However, in 2019 Nigeria was the only country, together with Afghanistan, to have over a thousand deaths, a figure that continues to be too high. Looking ahead to the end of this 2020 and seeing the increase in the number of attacks compared to 2019-and the mortality of some of them as last weekend-may leave us with a figure of more than 1,245 deaths caused by terrorism in 2019.
Nigeria is experiencing a delicate internal situation in which terrorism is no longer the only cause of instability. The End SARS movement, which rejects the violence unleashed by one of the units of the Nigerian security forces, is affecting the situation in the major cities. This, together with the violence unleashed by terrorism in more rural areas such as those in the northwest, is weakening the situation of one of the main powers on the African continent.
The Nigerian armed forces have long been deploying Operation Lafiya Dole, with which they are doing important work in combating terrorism, particularly in the sanctuaries both terrorist groups maintain in the Borno forests. The operation, which includes land and air assets, is achieving major victories in neutralising camps and seizing weapons, but it should be remembered that military action is only one of the ways of combating terrorism and that resolving the situation also involves other channels, such as the police and the judiciary.
The attack on Koshobe shows how terrorist groups sometimes get out of the fight they wage against the security forces, which are usually their main targets. They thus gain visibility and impose terror on the region, something they do not always achieve by attacking enclaves or military patrols, as is the case in the three-frontier zone, where the Burkina Faso, Malian and Nigerian armed forces have less training and military resources. The insecurity of rural areas in the northwest of the country is one of the main problems Nigeria will have to deal with if it is to avoid the proliferation of Boko Haram and ISWAP.