Operation Lafiya Dole and the paradox of peace by force: rethinking counterinsurgency and human security in Northeast Nigeria

Although the Human Security (HS) framework has been proposed for quite some years now, attempts to apply the framework to actual developmental projects haven’t been widespread. The concept of a Human Security Impact Assessment (HSIA) is emerging as a new tool to determine the costs and benefits of development projects in a multi-disciplinary way using the Human Security framework, although the HSIA has not been used extensively to date and has never been used to evaluate a dam project. In fact, the range of costs and benefits of large dams have never been analyzed using the Human Security framework. This study does not attempt to do a HSIA, but it is an attempt to test whether it is feasible to use the HSIA tool for a proposed dam project, and also asks whether it would be useful to do so. For a successful and useful HSIA, the study considers that there are three mandatory pre-requisites to be met, namely: being able to determine the current human security situation of the target community; being able to predict the potential impacts of the development project on the community's human security; and the endorsement and support of stakeholders to undertake a HSIA 4 villages in Sambor, Kratie province in Cambodia were interviewed to measure the current HS status. Also, the external stakeholders such as NGOs, Governmental agencies and International organizations were interviewed to find out their current understanding and perception on Sambor community and the proposed Sambor dam, and to anticipate whether a HSIA would be possibly conducted for the Sambor dam project. This study demonstrates that it is possible and would be useful to undertake a HSIA for the Sambor dam project because it will help stakeholders to see the impacts in a more holistic way and to design better projects with a decreased possibility of unfavorable consequences. There certainly is enough information and knowledge existing from the all stakeholders if they are synthesized together to undertake an assessment of the current human security situation in the Sambor area and to anticipate the changes to human security if the proposed Sambor dam is built. However, for a successful HSIA, the current limitations and barriers should be addressed including lack of resources and lack motivation to share information.

In Africa, and notably the Lake Chad Basin (LCB), Boko Haram is a major threat to human security. The region, which spans 427,500 km2 and contains large ungoverned areas, is made up of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Boko Haram has been responsible for several attacks in Northeast Nigeria since 2003 and is also the leading cause of forced migration in the Lake Chad Basin. In northeastern Nigeria and other LCB countries, this insurgency has caused widespread migration and increased the humanitarian crisis, socio-economic, and environmental consequences. This research aims to examine the developmental challenges emerging from Boko Haram-induced forced displacement in the LCB. Empirical evidence suggests that the Lake Chad Basin countries’ governments have failed to contain this group's aggression. However, there are still gaps in the literature regarding how this insurgency has affected social and economic lives of displaced people in the region. The study utilized a case study design, documentary method of data collection, and content analysis as the analytical technique. The study applies the Human Security Theory and Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) as the theoretical framework. Ultimately, the findings of this study revealed that forced migration severs social ties, leading to economic, social, and psychological impacts, including family separation and loss, with families often split up abruptly due to attacks and evacuation. In Addition, negative economic impacts disproportionately affect impoverished individuals, exacerbating chronic poverty and hindering their ability to escape poverty due to price volatility and wage declines. It was recommended that the governments of Lake Chad Basin countries should develop and implement policies that support the economic integration of refugees and displaced individuals, including measures to facilitate access to employment and promoting self-reliance and resilience. They should also foster initiatives that strengthen social ties and networks among displaced populations to facilitate integration into host communities and mitigate the negative impacts of social disconnection.

Killing for Airtime

At the beginning of the 2000s, the increased salience of the concept of human security was a welcome development both in academic and policy circles. Problematizing the state's central role as the principal object of security allowed human beings' security needs and concerns to be put in front and center, at least in theory, if not necessarily in practice. The increasing traction the concept got also allowed several non-traditional security threats, such as environment, health and migration, to be approached through security lenses and put on security agendas. Despite the burgeoning literature and the notable frequency at which the concept of human security got incorporated into policy discussions, it has lost, at least partially, its analytical traction and policy saliency. The lack of a clear definition as well as vague and tactical use of the concept by policymakers have raised concerns about the human security concept turning into an empty signifier. While the human security concept was welcome by some feminist approaches, it is also criticized by others. This article aims to discuss the human security concept through different feminist perspectives and understand its adaptability in the field based on a comparative interpretive analysis of feminist foreign policy initiatives by Sweden, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Chile and Luxembourg. To realize this aim, we analyze the conceptualization and implementation of feminist foreign policies and how they put the human security approach into practice. We seek to problematize how feminist foreign policies tackle the ambiguities and limitations within the human security framework, and to what degree these policies confront or maintain current power dynamics and state-centered security models. We argue that feminist foreign policies do highlight the problems related to gender equality and contribute to their solutions, but do not challenge patriarchy and the power relations behind it. As such, while they contribute to better implementation of human security as a guiding principle for foreign policy, conventional foreign policy concerns limit the change they can create on the ground.

Bangladesh’s foreign policy faces severe challenges coping with the mounting pressures of harboring large Rohingya refugee contingents, that too without a formal framework for defining refugees and their rights. Subjected to severe levels of human insecurity, these refugees pose human security concerns for the host community. This chapter explores if the human security framework, when included into Bangladesh’s foreign policy, can alleviate the problems the country is facing with refugees. By analyzing prevailing human security definitions and Bangladesh’s contemporary foreign policy, a comparative approach shows how a foreign policy reform can help improve refugees’ lives. While human security helps to fill in some of the gaps in international refugee laws and in Bangladesh’s foreign policy, the concept is not without its own problems, necessitating further research so that foreign policy-laced human security can benefit both refugees and host communities.Keywords Human Development Report Human security

BackgroundThe mental health of caregivers has been shown to be important for improving HIV prevention and treatment. Household food insecurity affects hundreds of millions of individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that experiences a disproportionate burden of the HIV pandemic. Both maternal HIV diagnosis and household food insecurity may be linked with maternal stress. This in turn may lead to unhealthy coping behaviors. We examined the independent associations of HIV, persistent household food insecurity and the synergistic effect of both on maternal stress.MethodsGhanaian women recruited prenatally from hospitals offering voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) were followed for 12 months after childbirth (N = 232). A locally adapted 7-item version of the US Household Food Security Survey Module was applied at four time points postpartum. We dichotomized participant households as being persistently food insecure (i.e., food insecure at each time point) or not (i.e., food secure at any time point). We dichotomized participant women as not perceiving vs. perceiving stress at 12 months postpartum in reference to the median sample score on the 4-item Cohen’s stress scale. Binary multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess the independent and interactive effects of maternal HIV and persistent household food insecurity on maternal stress.ResultsThe proportion of HIV-positive women that lived in severe food insecure households increased over time. By contrast, the HIV-negative group living in severely food insecure households experienced a steady decline across time. HIV-infection (AOR = 2.31, 95% CI 1.29-4.12) and persistent household food insecurity (AOR = 3.55, 95% CI 1.13-11.13) were independently associated with maternal stress in a multivariate model. Being both HIV-positive and persistently food insecure strongly and synergistically increased the risk for maternal perceived stress (AOR = 15.35, 95% CI 1.90-124.14).ConclusionIn agreement with syndemic theory there is a powerful synergism between maternal HIV diagnosis and household food insecurity on maternal stress. Comprehensive multi-dimensional intervention studies are needed to better understand how to reduce stress among HIV-positive women living in persistently food insecure households and how to reduce the likelihood of food insecurity in HIV-affected households in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) due to Internet connectivity has called to question the preparedness of nations to curb cyber terrorism and the effects on human security. Boko Haram emerged as one of the deadliest terrorist groups globally. The paper investigated the Nigeria’s efforts in checkmating cyber terrorism, the implication on human security and the inherent challenges associated. The paper employed descriptive research and qualitative method while secondary sources of data were adopted. The study found that cyber terrorism as employed by Boko Haram was deployed in raising fund, propaganda, coordinating operation, international collaboration, recruitment and training of its members. In addition, the Nigerian government has not given sufficient attention to war against cyber terrorism and this has complicated human security provisioning particularly in the North-East Nigeria. This study concluded that cyber terrorism has come to stay as long as development in ICT cannot exclude the terrorists and the prevalence of fear of attack and the destruction of lives and property facilitated by Internet have devastating effects on human security. This paper recommended the criminalization of terror attacks, adequate equipment of the security agencies and political will to tackle societal ills.

Characteristics associated with persistent versus transient food insecurity among US veterans screened in the Veteran Health Administration.

Despite South Sudan's high potential in agriculture and cultivation, food insecurity brought dire consequences to the people's well-being throughout 2017. The previous research mostly points to the South Sudan ongoing civil war as the main cause of food insecurity but has yet to sufficiently explore the case study using a human security approach. This paper will attempt to analyze the relevance of the human security approach in explaining the primary factor of food insecurity for the South Sudan people during 2017 and how the approach can be used to mitigate the issue. The author argues that the human security approach can reveal the South Sudan government's lack of prioritization for their people's well-being in decision-making as the primary factor of food insecurity, which can be mitigated by a people-centered approach in the future decisions of all the relevant actors. The author utilized Ken Booth's security as emancipation theory as the main perspective in the study alongside Sabine Alkire's human security concept and Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) food security indicators. The main findings confirm the importance of the human security approach in the decision-making of governments and other relevant actors, especially in the context of ensuring food security.

Transient, but Not Persistent, Adult Food Insecurity Influences Toddler Development1–3

Few individuals or governments have suggested that invasions by nonindigenous species are relevant to the broader issue of human security, despite a growing awareness of the ecological, economic, and societal impacts associated with invasive nonindigenous species (INIS). We propose that by framing management actions in a human and environmental security context, the threats (and benefits) posed by INIS to individuals and communities can be explicitly articulated and debated. This framework allows multiple stakeholders to bring their concerns to bear upon specific policy, and attempts to integrate broad environmental concerns within its parameters. We use the case of ecosystem-based management of invasive nonindigenous plants as an example of the utility of a human security framework. The dominant management approach to these species remains focused on the individual species, despite increasing calls for the implementation of ecosystem-based management strategies. Ecosystem-based management is supported by generalized and widely accepted mechanisms of plant community dynamics, such as succession, disturbance, and interspecific competition, but these scientific arguments do not consistently carry weight at the policy level and with the broader public. A human security framework may provide an approach for overcoming this resistance by placing the debate over management within the social and political context of the wider community. Overall, human security can allow applied ecologists to be better positioned to meet the challenges of communicating the need for science-based management.

The Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) is the major collaborative military initiative among the countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) saddled with the responsibility of combating Boko Haram Terrorism (BHT) within the region. Although the body seems to have achieved some successes, they have however, over the years, been involved in seemingly clandestine activities such as torture, extra-judicial execution, gender-based violence, etc., which, according to international humanitarian law, if committed during non-international armed conflict, are regarded as war crimes. This study seeks to investigate the nature and pattern of war crimes committed by some Nigerian military forces under the MNJTF in the course of Counter-Insurgency (COIN) operations against Boko Haram terrorists in north-east Nigeria between 2012 and 2019. It also investigates the implications of these travesties on victims, the war against terrorism and Nigeria in general. It analyses the various war crimes committed by the MNJTF. It also examines the measures for curbing the criminal activities of some members of the MNJTF. This study engages the following issues: what are the war crimes committed by the Nigerian soldiers under the MNJTF or why is the latter accused of gross human rights violations? What are the implications of the criminality of the MNJTF? What measures should be taken to curb the criminality of the MNJTF in north-east Nigeria? This study uses both primary and secondary sources. It anchors on Biological and Cultural Transmission Theories of criminology. The study reveals that the statutory body in charge of countering terrorism and also securing human lives, is also, like the Boko Haram terrorists, terrorising innocent civilians and promoting insecurity in north-east Nigeria. The conclusion is that the MNJTF is smudged with the brush of brutality and terrorism.

Boko Haram insurgency brings with it unprecedented consequences, particularly in records of multiple deaths and devastating effects on socio-economic dynamics of the nation. Since no state would stay without responding to threats to its national security, the federal government of Nigeria adopted both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches to counter the impact of terrorism on its shores. With several attacks from Boko Haram and the resultant consequences in terms of deaths, displacement and economic damages, the group has remained a potent force particularly in the North East and the Sahel region. In the midst of these contending realities is the Corona Virus Disease (COVID -19) that broke out from Wuhan, China in December 2019. Within the space of few months, the outbreak spiraled into a public health emergency and global pandemic; with rapid spread, high casualty rate and negative impacts on global health and economy. Accordingly, Nigeria like other nations was hit by the virus, causing disruption in its already fragile economy coupled with internal security threats. As a measure of containment, the global lockdown measures resulted in less economic patronage which translated into vulnerabilities like crime rate increase. While other countries were seeking answers to the question of health security, Nigeria was faced with the double tragedy of Boko Haram on one hand; and health insecurity on the other with attendant consequences. In this view, application of technology in combating insecurity as well as health emergencies will be the way to go, particularly, in a world that is technologically driven. This paper examines the imperative of technology in counter insurgency operations. It will adopt the historical approach in its analysis to build a pragmatic approach to reversing the trend. Keywords: COVID-19, Boko Haram, insurgency, Counterinsurgency Operation, health insecurity

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.

Boko Haram, Social Identity Group, Human (In)security and Counter-Insurgency/Counterterrorism