Author: M Barbu

Nigerian Terrorist Abubakar Shekau: Dead or Alive—and Does it Matter?

Multiple Nigerian media outlets reported last week that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has died or been mortally wounded in a confrontation with fighters from the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA), a group that separated from Shekau’s Boko Haram in 2016. The Nigerian government has not confirmed the reports and is investigating. The caution is well-placed: Shekau has been reported dead at least four times since he became the leader of Boko Haram in 2009 following the police killing of founder Mohammed Yusuf.

Leaving Boko Haram Behind

Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa have terrorized parts of Nigeria for over a decade, provoking national, regional and international responses. Operation Safe Corridor (OSC), Nigeria’s national rehabilitation and reintegration program for members of Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa who have surrendered, defected or were repentant, remains among the most mature and large-scale disengagement programs that currently exist. After several years, hundreds of participants have undergone rehabilitation in transition centers — with many being reintegrated back into communities.

Afghan refugees find difficult life in Turkey

As the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorates, an increasing number of Afghans are making their way to Turkey along dangerous migration routes. Most enter the country by crossing Turkey’s eastern border with Iran, a journey that carries the risk of injury or death. According to NGOs, the number of Afghan refugees in Turkey has grown to 600,000 over the last five years, many living undocumented.

In 2018, just over 100,000 Afghans entered Turkey without permission, according to the Migration Management Directorate, a figure that doubled in 2019. There is no official data available for 2020 and 2021.

What next for Afghanistan?

The book on post-9/11 U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is still being written; though, previous chapters are now familiar to most observers. Chapter 1: How the U.S. quickly routed the Taliban, but watched the group reemerge from neighboring sanctuary through a mix of intimidation and appeal to local grievances; Chapter 2: How the U.S. made significant investments in developing Afghan institutions of governance and rule of law, but undermined said efforts by empowering unaccountable local power brokers (in Afghan parlance, “warlords”) for short-term, tactical objectives; Chapter 3: How Afghan officials were regularly cited for corruption and financial mismanagement, but how the U.S. fueled a gold-rush-like situation in a country that had known nothing but conflict and depredation for over a quarter century; and so on. This is the story of the past two decades, or at least a part of it.

The Saudi-Iran Détente and the Israel-Hamas War

In April 2018, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, said in an interview with The Atlantic that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “makes Hitler look good.” MBS, as the crown prince is widely known, also dismissed the possibility of any talks between the two regional rivals.

Muslim Governments Are Giving China a Free Pass on Xinjiang

A chorus of condemnation has risen in recent months from Western capitals in response to China’s persecution of the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The United States, European Union, United Kingdom and Canada have imposed sanctions on Chinese officials, and U.S. President Joe Biden has maintained his predecessor’s stance that Beijing is committing “genocide” in Xinjiang—a position that the Canadian and British Parliaments also back.

Biden’s Worst Move Yet: Giving U.S. Vaccine Tech to China

A TRIPs waiver will not only impede vaccine production at this moment, it will also cause long-term harm. There are two principal concerns in this regard. First, a waiver for COVID-19 vaccines will obviously decrease the incentive for companies to make vaccines for the next disease. “The recent rhetoric will not discourage us from continuing investing in science,” wrote Bourla, the Pfizer chief. “But I am not sure if the same is true for the thousands of small biotech innovators that are totally dependent on accessing capital from investors who invest only on the premise that their intellectual property will be protected.”

Is the Biden Administration an Enemy of Israel and the Free World?

Biden made no distinction between a democratic ally of the United States and a terrorist organization he did not even name. He spoke as if he did not know that the calm was broken by a terrorist organization and by no one else, and that what prevents Palestinians from having freedom, prosperity and democracy is precisely that they are ruled by terrorists and people who supports terrorism.

On April 7, a US Department of State press statement said that the Biden administration had decided to restore US financial “aid to Palestinians”, without requiring that American money not be used for terrorist purposes….

Libya Turns the Page

Libyan politicians have moved with salutary speed in 2021 to reunify their divided country. With UN help, the new government should hasten to clear two last hurdles: establishing a legal framework for elections and clarity about who holds supreme command of the armed forces.

What’s new? After years in which parallel rival governments fought an intermittent war, Libya has a new consolidated executive. On 10 March, parliament endorsed a national unity government headed by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dabaiba, which took office in Tripoli. The two pre-existing governments handed over power peacefully.

In France, Teachers Tasked With Fighting Radicalization Face an Impossible Job

When Rachid Zerrouki, a teacher in Marseille, headed back to his classroom last Monday, he braced himself for the worst. He hadn’t seen his students since the brutal killing of Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old middle school teacher in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, who was beheaded by a young Chechen refugee days after he showed his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson about freedom of expression. With school back in session after a holiday break, the Education Ministry had instructed teachers to have students participate in a minute of silence to express solidarity with Paty and all teachers throughout France.