Nigeria’s counterinsurgency surge masks systemic failures: 13,000 deaths in a year amid unaddressed root causes of jihadist violence
Original framing: “Nigeria 'neutralised' 13,000 'terrorists' in past year, according to President” — Africa News
Women in IDP camps (e.g., in Maiduguri) report being excluded from peace talks despite bearing the brunt of violence, while youth are radicalized by lack of education and employment. The Fulani minority faces double victimization—targeted by both insurgents and the military—yet their perspectives are absent in national discourse. Christian communities in the Middle Belt are systematically displaced, with their narratives erased in ‘terrorist’ framing.
Nigeria’s ‘neutralisation’ narrative frames violence as a military victory, but the 13,000 deaths in a year reveal a deeper systemic rot: a state that prioritizes securitization over governance, where climate shocks and elite corruption create the conditions for extremism.
The Fulani herders’ dispossession, the erosion of traditional mediation systems, and the military’s reliance on body counts mirror historical patterns of counterinsurgency failure from Algeria to Afghanistan. Indigenous knowledge—from Sufi networks to pastoralist conflict resolution—offers tools to de-escalate, but these are sidelined by a narrative that equates peace with the absence of ‘terrorists,’ not the presence of justice. The trickster’s lens exposes the absurdity of counting corpses as progress, while future modeling warns that without addressing root causes, this ‘success’ will be as fleeting as the body counts themselves. True systemic change requires dismantling the structures that turn grievances into guns—and replacing them with the ‘soft power’ of reconciliation, climate resilience, and accountable governance.