Abstract
Counterinsurgency (COIN) operations often result in widespread human rights violations because COIN operations are usually premised on the erroneous assumption of irreconcilable tension between human rights and national security. By reviewing narratives that frame official discourse on counterinsurgency and human rights in Nigeria as well as locating women at the heart of the debate, this essay argues that assumption of incompatibility between human rights and national security can explain the widespread rights violations associated with COIN operations against Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria. A gender-sensitive-right-based approach to COIN is therefore recommended.
Highlights
Counterinsurgency (COIN) operations often result in widespread human rights violations because COIN operations are usually premised on the erroneous assumption of irreconcilable tension between human rights and national security
Experience from the counterinsurgency against Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria has shown that measures taken to tackle insurgencies can create serious human rights problems of their own, and that failure to acknowledge and constructively engage this possibility as part of the reality of counterinsurgency operations can further exacerbate rather than discourage human rights violations by COIN forces
The paper showed that underlying most COIN strategies and operations is the assumption that there is an irreconcilable tension between human rights and national security goals
Summary
The present counterinsurgency (COIN) operations of the Nigerian state in the northeast of Nigeria can be linked to the violent insurgency of Jama’a Ahl asSunna Lida’wa wa-al Jihad, better known as Boko Haram. Since 2009 when the group declared jihad against the Nigerian state, several high profile bombing attacks on both the state and the civilian population have been attributed to the group, and prompting former president Goodluck Jonathan to appeal at the time that the group be designated an international terrorist organization Some have located this violent twist in the activities of the group in the 2009 confrontation with security forces that led to killing of hundreds of its members and the arrest and subsequent death of its founder in controversial circumstances while in police custody (see Ladbury et al 2016). While the huge humanitarian cost and widespread human rights abuses associated with the activities of Boko Haram is well documented, scholarly attention to human rights violations resulting from COIN operations in the Northeast is still very scant.
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