“Any problems affecting Mali will affect Niger,” Maiga said. “We are the same ethnic group. We dress the same. We use the same turbans. We drink the same tea. It’s very difficult to identify who is from Ansar Dine.”
The case is the same along Niger’s 930-mile-long border with Nigeria, where several tribes also live on both sides of the frontier.
Struggling against militant Islam.
Brazen raid by Taliban fighters armed with automatic weapons, suicide vests and rocket-propelled grenades leaves 10 dead.
In town where he was captured, the former dictator is still a revered figure six years after his death.
Still, the Nigerien government has had some success in thwarting Boko Haram’s aspirations. Since March, at least 13 loyalists and fighters have been arrested on the way to northern Mali, apparently to support the rebellion or receive training from AQIM, said Justice Minister Amadou. In January, a United Nations Security Council report stated that seven Boko Haram loyalists passing through Niger were arrested with “names and contact details” of AQIM members.
In Diffa, authorities arrested several dozen suspected Boko Haram members in February and seized homemade explosives and grenades, said government and U.N. security officials. The group, authorities said, was trying to set up a cell in the area.
U.S. and U.N. officials are worried that Gaddafi’s arsenal, including rocket-propelled grenades, light antiaircraft artillery and shoulder-fired missiles, could end up in the hands of Boko Haram and AQIM.
While anecdotal evidence suggests links between Boko Haram, AQIM and the Islamists in Mali, security experts say it remains unclear whether any relationship has been formalized.
In Niger, there are no such doubts.
“They are all part of the same network,” Maiga said.
Fear among Christians
Hundreds of miles away, in the town of Zinder, fear grips Pastor Prince Uzoigwe. Last Christmas, Boko Haram threatened to target churches across southern Niger. The local police dispatched 20 officers to protect his small chapel.
In recent weeks, unknown people have thrown rocks into the church compound and destroyed its security lights. Others have hurled insults from outside the gate. In one incident, his wife was pelted with stones as she left the church. Uzoigwe blames the attacks on Boko Haram and its sympathizers here.
“They are planning day by day to attack us,” Uzoigwe said. “They need just one day to remove Christians in Niger.”
“Zinder is the center of Islam in Niger,” he added a few moments later. “They hate Christians. They hate us.”
U.N. and local officials say Islamic fundamentalism is creeping across southern Niger. There are more mosques that preach sharia law and radical brands of Islam. More children now study at Koranic schools. More women wear veils or floor-length garments; more men have beards.
“Diffa is the place where the insurgents go and rest,” said Guido Cornale, the chief of the United Nations Children’s Fund in Niger. “Zinder is where you have the religious side of Boko Haram gaining ground.”
Some locals openly expressed their support for Boko Haram.
“If I was attacked by Boko Haram, it’s like being attacked by God,” said Al Haj Abdu Maharaju, a trader in Maradi who makes frequent trips to northern Nigeria.
“It’s God wish. I have no problem with that.”
Violence tempts the idle
In the town of Goure, tens of thousands of men who once worked in Libya are now languishing, unemployed. They once supported dozens of relatives with their remittances; now most of those relatives are also unemployed and searching for food. Local officials blame the returnees for a sharp increase in robberies and other attacks.
They worry that some of them will join the Islamists in Nigeria or Mali. “All is possible,” said Alassan Mamam, an aide to Goure’s mayor. “They have nothing to do. They don’t possess anything, and they are hungry and poor.”
Adding to their woes are the Boko Haram attacks. Most southerners depend on northern Nigeria for goods, but the lawlessness there, border closings and intensified security searches have driven up prices of staple foods such as millet by 60 percent. “When I go to Nigeria these days, I am taking a huge risk,” said Alaji Rabi Ali, a trader in Maradi. “So I have to raise my prices.”
This year, Boko Haram sent several threatening letters to Muslim imams who preached against the militia’s ideology, said U.N. security officials. As in other areas, Boko Haram has its sympathizers here. Some families are refusing to vaccinate children because they view it as a Western conspiracy or have stopped sending girls to schools. Men from Diffa have traveled into Nigeria to fight alongside Boko Haram.
Against this backdrop, Capt. Danny and his Special Forces team are training Nigerien soldiers to better patrol their borders and to better engage with the local population. But senior government officials believe they deserve more international sympathy and support for their struggle against the Islamists. They say a military intervention in Mali is the best way to erase the threat, as well as send a strong warning to Boko Haram.
“We have controlled the situation up till now, but I’m not sure how long we can keep it under control,” said Amadou, the justice minister. “When we cry, we need to be heard by the world.”
Loading...
Comments