Boko Haram: UN reveals what makes sect stronger

The United Nations (UN) has revealed that cash economy is a major
factor fuelling the nefarious activities of the Boko Haram and other
terrorist groups in the Lake Chad Basin region.

This was contained in the 22nd Report of the Analytical Support and
Sanctions Monitoring Team, pursuant to resolution 2368 (2017)
concerning Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – ISIL – (Da'esh),
Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities.

UN said: "The predominance in the region of the cash economy, without
controls, is conducive to terrorist groups funded by extortion,
charitable donations, smuggling, remittances and kidnapping.

"In Nigeria, 111 schoolgirls from the town of Dapchi were kidnapped on
18 February 2018 and released by ISWAP on 21 March 2018 in exchange
for a large ransom payment".

The report was signed by Edmund Fitton-Brown, Coordinator, Analytical
Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, who said the report was
"comprehensive and independent", and Kairat Umarov, Chair, Security
Council Committee.

The UN Security Council committee on al Qaeda sanctions had
blacklisted and imposed sanctions on the Islamist militant group Boko
Haram in 2014 after the insurgents kidnapped more than 200 Chibok
schoolgirls.

In a Presidential Statement, the 15-member body regretted that Central
African countries were beset by ongoing terrorist activity,
instability and the effects of climate change, and asked
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to review the work of the UN
Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), and recommend areas for
improvement.

It read: "The Security Council strongly condemns all terrorist attacks
carried out in the region, including those perpetrated by Boko Haram
and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as
Daesh).

"These attacks have caused large-scale and devastating losses, have
had a devastating humanitarian impact including through the
displacement of a large number of civilians in Nigeria, Cameroon and
Chad, and represent a threat to the stability and peace of West and
Central Africa.

"The Council notes with particular concern the continuing use by Boko
Haram of women and girls as suicide bombers, which has created an
atmosphere of suspicion towards them and made them targets of
harassment and stigmatisation in affected communities, and of
arbitrary arrests by security forces.

"The Council emphasises the need for affected States to
counter-terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including by
addressing the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, in
accordance with obligations under international law, in particular
international human rights law, international refugee law and
international humanitarian law".

The Security Council welcomed the support provided by UNOCA and the UN
Office for West Africa and Sahel (UNOWAS) for the development of a
joint regional strategy to address the root causes of the Lake Chad
Basin crisis through regular contact with regional leaders.