Skip to footer

Nigeria election causing more Boko Haram attacks, says US State dept

Boko Haram, the militant Islamic group responsible for terrorizing Nigeria, is attacking with greater frequency due to the impending presidential election.

|
Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters
A woman sits beside an electoral poster of Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan during the flag-off for his campaign for a second term in office, in Lagos January 8, 2015. REUTERS
  • By Reuters

| WASHINGTON

Nigeria's election next month is a factor behind the sharp increase in attacks by Boko Haram Islamist militants in the north of the country, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday.

Spokeswoman Marie Harf said, however, that the Feb. 14 presidential election should go forward despite the violence, which the United Nations and human rights groups say has forced about 20,000 Nigerians to flee to neighboring countries in recent weeks.

"There has been a sharp escalation in the number of reported casualties," Harf told a daily briefing. "We do believe the election is a factor."

Harf said Boko Haram previously used events such as elections to stir up tensions. The election is expected to be a close contest between President Goodluck Jonathan and his leading challenger Muhammadu Buhari.

"Boko Haram has tended to, particularly around something like an election, use political issues or sensitivities to try to enflame tensions," she said. "We have seen that as one of their tactics and that is why it is so important to move forward with the election, because we believe it's important."

Boko Haram's insurgency began in 2009, but the number and scale of the attacks has risen sharply since last year after the government imposed emergency rule in three worst-hit states in northern Nigeria.

Amnesty International has said Boko Haram may have killed some 2,000 people around Jan. 3 in Baga innorthern Nigeria. Harf said it was hard to independently verify that figure. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Will Dunham and Andre Grenon)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Nigeria election causing more Boko Haram attacks, says US State dept
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0113/Nigeria-election-causing-more-Boko-Haram-attacks-says-US-State-dept
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe