The United States Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights
Sarah Sewall who was with a Pentagon top Africa official, Amanda Dory made the assertion during a hearing at the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
She said that the insurgency being experienced in the North-Eastern part of Nigeria would have been ended if the Nigeria military had overcome entrenched corruption and incompetence.
The US official told New York Times that the Nigeria military can only rescue the over 234 abducted school girls from Chibok, Borno State, when they completely flush out corruption.
She recalled and noted that despite the country’s $5.8 billion security budget for 2014, it was appalling to discover that the army lacks the needed apparatus to combat insurgents.
“Corruption prevents supplies as basic as bullets and transport vehicles from reaching the front lines of the struggle against Boko Haram”.
She further revealed to the committee that the Nigerian soldiers morale were low, causing desertions to be very rampant in the 7th Army Division fighting the Boko Haram sect.
When one of the lawmakers asked her for an update about the abducted girls location and welfare, Sewall said: “Given time, I am hopeful that we will make progress.”
It would be recalled that on May 13 in Abuja, Sewall explained the US level of involvement in the rescue mission, when she noted that their personnel would not be combative. She also said it was left for the Nigeria government to decide either to swap the kidnapped girls for detained terrorists members as offered by Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the deadly sect.
Meanwhile, Dory in her testimony, said that Pentagon expressed optimism that the girls might have been broken into several smaller groups.
“They may or may not all be in Nigeria,” she said, adding that “Nigerian military’s heavy-handed tactics with Boko Haram risked further harming and alienating local populations”.
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/66880.html
No comments:
Post a Comment