Nigeria's new army chief vows to defeat Boko Haram

Nigeria's new Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) Air Marshal Alexander Badeh asserted Monday that the military would have flushed out Boko Haram fighters by April.

"The security situation in the northeast must be brought to a complete stop before April 2014," Badeh said in Abuja, shortly after he took the baton as the new CDS from his predecessor Admiral Ola Sa'ad Ibrahim.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has recently replaced his top military generals in a step government officials hoped would inject new life into the counterinsurgency measures in the troubled Northeastern region.

"Substantial progress has been recorded in the war against the insurgents," said the newly-appointed CDS.
"We must bring it (insurgency) to a stop before April so that we will not have constitutional problems on our hands."

Badeh is obviously worried that President Jonathan would lack constitutional powers to extend emergency rule beyond April in the three northern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.


Jonathan had last May declared a state of emergency in the three states which are the hearts of the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency.

He had suggested that the insurgency would be over by last June, a claim finished by a flurry of Boko Haram killings across many cities and villages in the northern region.

Although Boko Haram attacks had greatly been curtailed in major cities, the militant group continues to kill many people in remote villages with occasional deadly attacks in towns like Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, Damaturu, the capital of the neighboring Yobe State and Mubi in Adamawa.

Up to 20 people are feared to have been killed in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militant on Alau Ngawo village in Borno state on Sunday night.

A hitherto peaceful organization that had preached against government corruption, Boko Haram suddenly turned violent in 2009 following the murder of group leader Mohamed Yusuf while in police custody.
In the years since, Boko Haram has been blamed for thousands of attacks, including attacks on churches and security posts across Nigeria's northern region.

Although it claims to want an Islamist government in the region, Nigerian Muslims – most of whom reject Boko Haram as un-Islamic – have also been targeted by the militant group.