NOTV Presents:

Fire Squad

Boko Haram continues to be one of the most high-profile and lethal conflict actors within West Africa. The group has developed into a transnational agency with active units throughout Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Niger. Boko Haram is also gaining notoriety for the scale of its attacks on both state and civilian targets, with the latest being a military victory and civilian massacre at Baga.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Boko Haram violence has killed more than 10,000 people in 2014 alone. Conflicts involving Boko Haram were responsible for 48.17% of the recorded fatalities in Cameroon and 33.44% of the recorded fatalities in Nigeria in 2014. More than a 1.5 million people are displaced inside Nigeria and hundreds of thousands have fled across its borders into Chad and Cameroon, many of whom will not be able to vote in the polls under Nigeria’s current electoral laws.

ISIL shocked everyone with its strict form of Islam — with brutal beheadings of captured hostages and even children, as well as daily whippings of 40 lashes and fines for shopkeepers who stay open during the call to prayer. In efforts to establish their own eminence on the world stage, Boko Haram is getting more extreme itself. The group has increasingly been using young women and children and escalating the scale of their attacks. Last week, the group used a 10-year-old girl as a suicide bomber. “I doubt much if she actually knew what was strapped to her body,” one observer told AFP.

So what can we do about Boko Haram realistically? I have absolutely no idea. Launching a major international military offensive against them is not the solution. People need to start holding the Nigerian government accountable and the surrounding countries need to come together and create a plan of action and lead. They have yet to do so, so why would you expect the media and international community to?