US aiding Boko Haram, says Buhari
Washington (AFP) – Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari warned
Washington on Wednesday that a US refusal to arm his troops because of
“so-called human rights violations” only helps Boko Haram.
The 72-year-old former general has been warmly received in the US
capital on his first visit since his March election raised hopes of
reform in Africa’s troubled giant.
But he departs with little practical military assistance in his battle
against the Islamist militants who have turned the northeast of his
country into a bloody war zone.
The US government has vowed to help Nigeria defeat the insurgency but it
is prohibited under law from sending weapons to countries that fail to
tackle human rights abuses.
“Regretably, the blanket application of the Leahy Law by the United
States on the grounds of unproven allegations of human rights violations
levelled against our forces has denied us access to appropriate
strategic weapons to prosecute the war,” he said.
Addressing an audience of policy-makers, activists and academics in
Washington, Buhari complained that Nigerian forces had been left
“largely impotent” in the face of Boko Haram’s campaign of kidnapping
and bombings.
“They do not possess the appropriate weapons and technology which we
could have had if the so-called human rights violations had not been an
obstacle,” he said.
“Unwittingly, and I dare say unintentionally, the application of the
Leahy Law Amendment by the United States government has aided and
abetted the Boko Haram terrorists.”
He appealed to both the White House and the US Congress to find a way
around the law — introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy in 1997 — and to
supply his troops with high-tech weapons under a deal “with minimal
strings.”
Buhari, who ruled Nigeria as a military strongman between 1983 and 1985,
returned to office in March as the country’s first opposition
challenger to defeat an incumbent in a largely fair poll.
His victory triggered a wave of optimism for oil-rich Nigeria, which has
Africa’s biggest population and economy but many deep and seemingly
intractable problems.
Since 2009, Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamist
breakaway state in a conflict that has seen 15,000 people killed and 1.5
million displaced.
The group’s brutality and in particular the mass kidnapping and
enslavement of schoolgirls has shocked world opinion, but Nigeria’s own
security forces also face criticism.
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