A year after the USIP study, Africa Review reported that many Boko Haram foot soldiers happen to be people displaced by severe drought and food shortages in neighbouring Niger and Chad. Some 200,000 farmers and herdsman had lost their livelihoods and, facing starvation, crossed the border to Nigeria. While a good number of these men were found in major cities like Lagos, pushing water carts and repatriating their earnings to the families they left behind, said Africa Review, others were believed to have been lured by the Boko Haram. ....With such domestic oil production challenges undermining Nigerias oil export revenues, the fuel subsidy slash has pushed the brunt of the crisis onto the population, escalating the poverty and inequality that is a recruiting sergeant for Islamist terror. In northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram hail from, there is little evidence of an oil boom. With about 70% of the population subsisting on less than a dollar a day - some 20% higher than the already dismal rate in the south, rates of illiteracy and illness are endemic. As noted by David Francis, one of the first western reporters to cover Boko Haram, Most of the foot soldiers of Boko Haram arent Muslim fanatics; theyre poor kids who were turned against their corrupt country by a charismatic leader. theguardian/environment/earth-insight/2014/may/09/behind-rise-nigeria-boko-haram-climate-disaster-peak-oil-depletion
Posted on: Sun, 11 May 2014 20:54:26 +0000
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