According to Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, more than 13,000 people have been killed in the Boko Haram insurgency since 2009. Some estimates put the carnage as high as 17,000 deaths.
Between July 2013 and June 2014 alone, an estimated 7,000 people died in incidents related to the insurgency. Boko Haram – which means “Western education is forbidden” – recently pledged allegiance to ISIS.
When these formidable jihadists rampaged through Nigeria, last year – kidnapping schoolgirls, slaughtering Christians, and burning down churches, the Obama administration’s primary response was a hash-tag campaign on Twitter. If the besieged people of Nigeria expected more than lip service from the United States in their battle against Boko Haram in the days and weeks that came, they were sorely mistaken. They got bupkis.
Clearly, a more serious response than #BringBackOurGirls was needed to combat the growing menace – but the United States all but abandoned their African ally. Not only did the Obama Regime refused to sell Nigeria the arms it needed to fight Boko Haram, it blocked other Western allies from helping them, too.
Back in January, the Jerusalem Post reported that Obama refused to allow “the resale of US-made military helicopters by Israel to the Nigerian government for its fight against Boko Haram last summer.”
Via James Simpson of AIM:
The administration also denied Nigeria intelligence on Boko Haram from drones operating in the area. While Boko Haram was kidnapping school girls, the U.S. cut petroleum purchases from Nigeria to zero, plunging the nation’s economy into turmoil and raising concerns about its ability to fund its battle against the terrorists. Nigeria responded by cancelling a military training agreement between the two countries.
What do you suppose was behind the Obama Regime’s abject refusal to help this ally fight these terrorists?
Would you believe that there’s a presidential election coming up in Nigeria, and Obama’s favored Muslim candidate is in a tight race against the Christian President Goodluck Jonathan?
And would you further believe that a political consulting group founded by Obama confidante David Axelrod is assisting that candidate – Retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari – who hails from Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria from whence Boko Haram was spawned?
Thanks to the lack of cooperation and assistance from the United States, the Jonathan government has been failing miserably at beating back the terrorist scourge, with the president looking weak and ineffectual.
Desperate, the government finally turned to Russia, China and the black market to obtain the much needed arms.
Six years ago if you had heard of a United States president behaving this way, you might have been shocked. But today, we are no longer surprised by Obama’s lethal perfidy. We watch helplessly and with horror as the world crumbles.
At least 13,000 civilians dead in Nigeria since 2009 and the US looks the other way because Obama wants to put a progressive Muslim in power.
According to an anti-Buhari Nigerian blogger writing in the Western Post:
In the last year, Nigeria sought aid from the White House for many initiatives, including the fight against Boko Haram.
The Obama administration refused to do anything but play [sic] lip service to Nigeria’s requests. However, it used public and private channels to internationally magnify every failure Nigeria’s government experienced.
In the last year, since the involvement of Axelrod’s firm, relations between the two nations have significantly deteriorated, with the US refusing to sell arms to Nigeria, a significant reduction in the purchase of Nigeria’s oil, and the cancellation of a military training agreement between Nigeria and the USA.
In turn, the Buhari-led Nigerian opposition used the U.S. government’s position as validation for their claim that the Nigerian government was a failure.
To top it off, Simpson reports that Secretary of State John Kerry “made a mockery of the administration’s pretext by hinting in January meetings with both Jonathan and Buhari that the Obama administration might allow weapon sales after the election.”
If the U.S. was so concerned about human rights violations, how could a mere election change that? Given the perception that Buhari has Obama’s implicit support, this sends an unmistakable message.
The administration also rationalized its decision to cut purchases of Nigerian oil by claiming that output from domestic oil fracking has reduced America’s dependence on foreign oil. But that begs the question: why have U.S. oil imports from other nations increased at the same time? Nigeria was formerly among America’s top five oil supplying countries, and America its largest customer. Nigeria relies on oil revenues for 70 percent of its budget. America’s decision to look elsewhere has been catastrophic for Nigeria’s economy.
After turning to Russia and China to obtain arms, Nigeria was able to fight aggressively and on the offensive against Boko Haram.
They have retaken 40 towns previously occupied by the group and killed at least 500 of the terrorists.
According to recent accounts, Boko Haram has gone to ground in the northeastern border regions. But whereas the border states of Niger, Chad, Benin and Cameroon formerly took a hands-off approach, they have now joined in the effort to destroy the group, pledging a total of 8,700 troops. Most recently, Boko Haram has been cleared of its northeastern strongholds in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
Read AIM’s exhaustive exclusive here and be sure to note that the rest of the media is curiously uninterested in this story.
There is not a single article mentioning Axelrod’s assistance to Buhari in any U.S. “mainstream” media outlet. Only the Washington Free Beacon ran a story.
Simpson concludes by noting that due to Obama’s horrendous policies, America is losing allies all over the world, while he cozies up to our worst enemies.
Despite his so-called outreach to “the Muslim world,” the few Muslim allies America has are calling him out. For example, observe the unprecedented spectacle of Arabs cheering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before the U.S. Congress. Columnist Dr. Ahmad Al-Faraj of the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Jazirah, called Obama “the worst president in American history.” The only Muslims Obama seems to like are those who hate America, and he is going out of his way to court them, come what may.
Or as I put it in January – Obama always seems to err on the side of the militant Islamists, doesn’t he?
UPDATE:
BBC: Boko Haram crisis: ‘About 500’ Nigeria children missing:
About 500 children aged 11 and under are missing from a Nigerian town recaptured from militants, a former resident of Damasak has told the BBC.
A trader in the north-eastern town told Reuters news agency that Boko Haram fighters took the children with them when they fled.
Troops from Niger and Chad seized Damasak earlier in March, ending months of control by the Islamist militants.
A regional force has recently been helping Nigeria take on the insurgents.
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Nice Deb 