28, February 2024
Nigeria’s security problems deepen as Ambazonia war spills across border 0
Over the past two decades, Nigeria has grappled with multiple and complex national security threats, each posing a significant challenge to its stability.
The nation finds itself fighting a violent militancy in the Niger Delta, conflicts between farmers and herders across multiple regions, terrorism and insurgency in the northeast, banditry in the northwest and secessionist campaigns by groups such as the Indigenous People of Biafra in the southeast.
Now a new layer of complexity has emerged in the form of the Ambazonian secessionist group from Cameroon. This group’s growing threat, most recently seen in the December 2023 violent invasion of the Nigerian borderline village of Belegete, adds to the strain on Nigeria’s national security capabilities.
As a scholar specializing in radicalization, violent extremism and counterterrorism in West and Central Africa, I believe the latest threat raises concerns about Nigeria’s strategic preparedness and ability to confront growing challenges.
How the country responds could have far-reaching consequences. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and most populous country. Since its independence in 1960, Nigeria has played a crucial role in regional stability and security. It remains an important diplomatic partner for the United States, which provides support to the Nigerian government in its efforts to combat extremism in the region.
Rise of a violent campaign
Ambazonian separatists, seeking independence from the Republic of Cameroon, are mounting a bloody civil war that stems from the Anglophone crisis, a protracted conflict rooted in the colonization of Cameroon by both the French and British governments.
Separatists from Camaroon’s two English-speaking regions declared independence from the French-speaking majority in 2017, and war has been raging between the separatists and Cameroon government forces ever since.
The Ambazonian secessionist movement, fueled by grievances that include the perceived dominance of Francophone Cameroonians, seeks to secede and establish an independent Federal Republic of Ambazonia.
Agitation over the past seven years has resulted in violence and widespread human rights violations.
Estimates by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reveal that over 1.7 million people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Furthermore, the Anglophone crisis has resulted in over 6,000 deaths and displaced 765,000 people. About 70,000 of these refugees are in Nigeria, including a few in the village of Belegete.
The attack in Belegete in December left two dead, including the traditional leader, Chief Francis Ogweshi, and 20 others kidnapped.
Nigeria’s national security
As Cameroon’s clash with separatists worsens in southwestern Cameroon, the Ambazonian insurgents have moved into Nigeria.
The violent attack on the Belegete community, which followed earlier incursions in Nigeria such as the Manga village attack of November 2021, suggests a growing cross-border element to Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis.
As well as presenting a violation of territorial integrity, the incident also suggests collaboration with Nigeria’s own secessionist groups, with evidence of links between Ambazonian secessionists and the Indigenous People of Biafra.
Ambazonian insurgents are also engaged in drugs, arms and human trafficking and have brought that illegal trade across the border into Nigeria.
The incursion of Ambazonian activities has not only added to Nigeria’s security challenges. It has also intensified an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Nigeria’s border region, displacing thousands of people and straining the capacity of authorities to care for its internally displaced persons and refugees from neighboring countries, including Cameroon.
As of June 2023, Nigeria has an estimated 2.3 million internally displaced persons and 93,130 refugees and asylum seekers. The Belegete attack added to this by displacing the entire village of over 2,000 people, who took refuge in the neighboring village of Becheve.
Confronting the emerging threat
Nigeria’s capacity to confront the emerging Ambazonian threat is questionable, given multiple strategic, operational and tactical limitations.
The 2022 Afrobarometer working paper, which mapped states’ capacity to prepare for or respond to security threats, concludes that Nigeria – like several African states – “is widely seen to lack the necessary capacity for the physical and material security of its citizens or to command legitimacy.”
The Ambazonian separatist insurgency poses a threat not only to Cameroon and Nigeria but risks further degrading the security situation in West Africa.
The Nigerian government, undoubtedly, understands the magnitude of the security threats it faces, and its apparent limitations, and has called for assistance. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a January 2024 letter to the outgoing French ambassador to Nigeria, Emmanuelle Blatmann, stressed the need for strengthened cooperation. “On regional security, we want you to remind Paris at every opportunity that it is necessary to upgrade our technical cooperation,” he wrote.
The United States has said it remains committed to assisting Nigeria. In January 2024, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with his Nigerian counterpart, Nuhu Ribadu, and underscored the need for continuous bilateral security cooperation.
And while Nigeria has in recent years partnered with Cameroon to ensure regional stability, the latest attack suggests a need to increase strategic cooperation between the neighboring countries to stem the growing threat.
However, countering the Ambazonian separatists and other internal security threats will remain a challenge for the Nigerian government. With a vast population and territory, security personnel are already stretched thin.
Meanwhile, the existing security apparatus in the country is compromised. The military is beset by problems, including low morale and corruption, and the national police force is perceived as largely unprofessional and corrupt.
These issues hamper Nigeria’s capacity to respond, and they undermine any attempt to counter the spiraling security threats faced by Nigeria, including the Ambazonian separatists.
Culled from The Conversation
13, March 2024
Southern Cameroons Crisis: NERA 10 Seek Nigeria’s House Of Reps’ Intervention 0
Six Cameroonian professors working in Nigerian universities and four others have sought the immediate intervention of the House of Representatives to secure their release after being allegedly abducted and deported to their home country.
According to the Nation, they said they had been imprisoned in Cameroon since January 2018.
It was learned that they were being detained at Kondengui Security Detention facility in Cameroon.
The detainees who claimed to be legal residents in Nigeria alleged that they were illegally abducted and deported from Nigeria on January 5, 2018, to Cameroon, on “frivolous allegations of plotting to destabilise the government of La Republique du Cameroon (LRC) President Mr. Paul Biya.”
They added that they were unlawfully prosecuted and remanded in prison in their home country, Cameroon despite two subsisting judgements given by Nigerian courts which declared their prolonged detention as unlawful.
Those who submitted the petition to the Nigerian federal lawmakers on their behalf are Prof. Carlson Anyangwe, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, Barr. Fru Joseph Awah, Barr. Abdul Oroh and Barr. Mbinkar Ernestine Singeh.
They added that considering the position of Nigerian courts on this, the House of Representatives should compel the Cameroonian government to free them from prison and compensate them financially.
They also added that in October 2022, the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UN-HRC-WGAD) in Communication 59/2022 of October 14, 2022, found their arrest and detention by Nigeria and Cameroon arbitrary and illegal and asked both countries to unconditionally free the victims and pay them appropriate compensation.
The petition reads: “Cause the government of Nigeria to institute an urgent action to secure the implementation of Communication 59/2022 of 14th October 2022 of the UN-HRC-WGAD calling for the release of the Petitioners.
“Cause the Government of Nigeria to take action and implement the rulings in the 3 judgments of the Federal High Court of Abuja in 2019, ordering the release and compensation of these Petitioners.
“Cause Nigeria to leverage on the Abuja 2002 ruling in the case of Kelvin Ngwang Ngumne et al Vs the FGN, demanding that Nigeria intervenes to resolve the conflict between Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun and respect for the particular clause of the Green Tree Agreement which demands that both la Republique du Cameroun and Nigeria retain their boundaries at independence, To pursue the self-determination quest of the Southern Cameroons to its logical conclusion as mandated by the FHC 2002 judgment.
“Cause the Government of Nigeria to take action and urgently initiate proceedings before the ICJ and other international jurisdictions citing la République du Cameroun to be sanctioned for fraudulent misrepresentation during the Bakassi Peninsula case in the ICJ.
“Cause the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to take its rightful place as “big brother” in African politics and cause the African Union or the United Nations to intervene in the matter between the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun or to proceed as mediator and resolve the ongoing conflict and restore peace and stability in the Gulf of Guinea region.”
At the last hearing of the subject before the House Committee on Public Petitions, Mohammed Manu, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no record of the petition.
He did, however, state that their results proved that the government was handling the situation as a security and legal concern.
Hon. Mike Etaba, Chairman of the Committee, adjourned the hearing till April 16, 2024, for proper service and hearing.
Source: Sahara Reporters