DAKAR, Senegal — The Pentagon is poised to send dozens of Special
Operations advisers to the front lines of Nigeria’s fight against the
West African militant group Boko Haram, according to military officials,
the latest deployment in conflicts with the Islamic State and its
allies.
Their deployment would push American troops hundreds of miles closer
to the battle that Nigerian forces are waging against an insurgency that
has killed thousands of civilians in the country’s northeast as well as
in neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon. By some measures, Boko Haram
is the world’s deadliest terrorist group.
The deployment is a main recommendation of a recent confidential assessment by the
top United States Special Operations commander for Africa, Brig. Gen.
Donald C. Bolduc. If it is approved, as expected, by the Defense and
State Departments, the Americans would serve only in noncombat advisory
roles, military officials said.
Even as President Obama has drawn down the large American armies sent
to Iraq and Afghanistan, he has relied heavily on Special Operations
forces to train and advise local troops fighting the Islamic State, also
known as ISIS or ISIL, and to carry out clandestine counterterrorism
missions.
Already, about 50 American commandos are advising fighters battling
the Islamic State in eastern Syria. Scores more in a new, secret
kill-or-capture unit are hunting Islamic State militants in Iraq. The
Pentagon has offered to send American advisers with Iraqi brigades on
the battlefield instead of restricting them to bases inside Iraq. Dozens
of American commandos are conducting surveillance missions in Libya and
counterterrorism missions in Somalia.
“Rather than entangle U.S. combat forces on the ground, help build
the capacity of regional forces to tackle their countries’ security
challenges,” said Jennifer G. Cooke, Africa director at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington, who visited Nigeria
last month. “Training and advising and perhaps imparting the lessons we
learned the hard way is a good thing.”
Since
taking office last year, Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, has
vowed to pursue a military campaign against Boko Haram more vigorously
than his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan. His shake-up of the military
high command and new cooperation with neighboring countries has proved
effective.
A Nigerian Army soldier in Lagos last year.STEFAN HEUNIS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
Mr. Buhari, a former general, has boasted of the military’s successes in
wresting control of a huge portion of terrain from the group, declaring
a “technical” victory late last year. But while the military has killed
or captured thousands of militants and put an end to raids of villages
by dozens or more fighters, the group has still carried out suicide
attacks at a relentless pace in Nigeria and neighboring countries.
“Despite losing territory in 2015, Boko Haram will probably remain a
threat to Nigeria throughout 2016 and will continue its terror campaign
within the country and in neighboring Cameroon, Niger and Chad,” James
R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told the House
Intelligence Committee in Washington on Thursday.
To help combat this threat, Mr. Buhari has embraced American
assistance, ending several years of tense relations that sank to new
lows in 2014 when the United States blocked the sale of American-made
Cobra attack helicopters to Nigeria from Israel, amid concerns about
Nigeria’s protection of civilians when conducting military operations.
Groups like Human Rights Watch say the Nigerian military has at times
burned hundreds of homes and committed other abuses as it battled Boko
Haram and its presumed supporters.
Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States responded sharply at the
time, accusing Washington of hampering the country’s effort to defeat
Boko Haram. American officials also expressed hesitancy about sharing
intelligence with the Nigerian military, fearing their ranks had been
infiltrated by Boko Haram, an accusation that further infuriated
Nigerian leaders.
In
December 2014, Nigeria canceled the last stage of American training of a
new Nigerian Army battalion that was to take the lead in fighting
terrorists.
Those days now seem over. This month Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the
State Department’s top diplomat for Africa, announced that the suspended
training for the Nigerian infantry battalion would resume soon. Nigeria
will provide the ammunition.
Two weeks ago, Gen. David M. Rodriguez, the head of the Pentagon’s
Africa Command, hosted Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, Gen. Abayomi
Gabriel Olonisakin, at the American headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.
“To contain Boko Haram, working together is a priority,” General
Rodriguez told his visitor.
About 250 American service members have deployed to a military base
in Garoua, Cameroon, where United States surveillance drones flying over
northeastern Nigeria are sending imagery to African troops. Drone
photos recently helped the Nigerian Army avoid a major Boko Haram
ambush, according to a senior American intelligence officer.
Another breakthrough occurred late last year when General Bolduc, a
Green Beret with multiple Special Forces tours in Afghanistan, visited
Nigeria. When officials there asked for assistance, General Bolduc
quickly sent an assessment team to conduct a 30-day review.
Among the team’s main recommendations was to position “small dozens”
of Special Forces in Maiduguri, a major city in the northeast on the
edge of the conflict, to help Nigerian military planners carry out a
more effective counterterrorism campaign. British special forces are
already assisting in the city. (The American military now maintains only
a tiny intelligence cell in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.) Nigerian
military officials have embraced the recommendations and are drawing up
detailed requests, American officials said.
Just last fall, life seemed to be turning back to normal in the areas
near Maiduguri, which for years had been the epicenter of Boko Haram’s
activities. But after a major military operation uprooted the militants
from nearby villages they had seized, many fighters have returned to
Maiduguri to launch repeated suicide bombing operations in the city or
in villages on the outskirts that have caused dozens of deaths.
At
the end of last year, fighters attacked the city with rocket-propelled
grenades and several suicide bombs. Residents say they eye one another
with suspicion, especially women wearing religious gowns, fearful that
explosives may be hidden underneath.
These relentless attacks have put more pressure on Nigeria and its neighbors to marshal their forces against a common enemy.
After taking office last year, Mr. Buhari began forging relationships
with the presidents of neighboring countries to establish
information-sharing and to build trust between his nation and Niger,
Cameroon and Chad. But grouping the four nations together to share
information and untangling decades of mistrust among them have proved
harder.
A regional task force established by the countries last year has
largely stalled amid lingering distrust and differing views about the
threat. Less than half of the task force’s $700 million budget has been
raised, and sinking oil prices have hurt the economies of Chad and
Nigeria, Ms. Cooke said in congressional testimony this week.
Still, working together has yielded victories.
Earlier this month, the Cameroonians teamed up with the Nigerian
military as part of a joint operation on Nigerian soil just across the
border in the far north, killing more than 160 Boko Haram fighters,
dismantling a logistics hub for the fighters and destroying explosive
devices, according to officials there.
Credit:
NEW YORK TIMES
