CFR Update 1/15 Kerry Calls Nigerian Attacks 'Crime Against Humanity'

Kerry Calls Nigerian Attacks 'Crime Against Humanity' U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart met Thursday and discussed options for addressing (AFP) the Nigerian militiant group Boko Haram. The meeting came after satellite images were released depicting widespread destruction in two Boko Haram attacks last week. Death tolls range widely (BBC) between Nigerian military estimates of 150 and local accounts of two thousand casualties. Amnesty International says the satellite images show at least 3,700 structures (Al Jazeera) were destroyed and suggest a high death toll. Violence has intensified ahead of Nigeria's presidential elections, set for February 14.  Analysis "It’s past time for Nigeria, West Africa, and the West to recognize Boko Haram for what it has become: a complex terrorism threat on a scale comparable to the Islamic State, embedded in Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation. Since January 2014, more than 5,000 have been killed in the fighting it has triggered, a count that rivals civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. The horrific violence is only intensifying," argues the Washington Post. "Refugees fleeing Nigeria are an international responsibility and it is only a matter of time before the international community will need to ramp up its support for the UNHCR and for other relief agencies such as the World Food Program to respond to the humanitarian disaster growing quietly in northeast Nigeria," writes CFR's John Campbell. "The relationship between Nigeria and the United States, its most important partner in fighting Boko Haram, has been compromised by increasing mistrust. But there is little that outsiders can do in this war. The sad fact is that Boko Haram could have been defeated by now, by a more competent and more determined Nigerian government," Alexis Okeowo in the New Yorker.