With a risky insurgency spreading within his borders, the visit to Washington this week by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was certainly going to touch on increased military support against Boko Haram.
Following the meeting, Buhari cirticised the Leahy Law, which forbids the US government from providing military assistance or funding to countries that commit – or are suspected of committing – gross human rights abuses with impunity.
Boko Haram has killed some 10,000 people since 2009 and has also kidnapped hundreds of girls and women.
Wednesday’s attacks were the furthest south that Cameroon has been struck since it deployed thousands of troops to the region to combat Boko Haram in Nigeria.
He added that his country’s army did not possess “appropriate weapons and technology which we could have had if the so-called human rights violations had not been an obstacle”.
Earlier in July, Muslim extremists ravaged northeastern Nigerian villages, killing nine villagers and burning down 32 churches and about 300 homes, according to Stephen Apagu, chairman of a self-defense group in Borno state’s Askira-Uba local government area.
Still, to demonstrate his resolve at purging incompetence in the military, President Buhari last week dismissed his entire military top brass, even as militants launched deadly attacks in Nigeria’s remote northeast and in Cameroon.
Buhari’s predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, in January 2014 signed the draconian law that, among other things, punishes those who enter into a same-sex marriage with up to 14 years in prison and bans membership in an LGBT advocacy group.
Buhari noted that he did not believe this was “the spirit of the Leahy Laws” nor the intention of the American people.
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The President made the denial a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, describing the reports as widely off mark. Nigeria is one of Africa’s largest economies. “But winning the battle against terrorism means we have to do things differently”.
