WASHINGTON – Speaking at an event in Washington on Wednesday, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said his country was confident that it could defeat terrorism – but he also charged that the United States had “aided and abetted” the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, citing the role played by a U.S. human rights law. His comments came on the same day that bomb blasts by Boko Haram killed 29 people in Nigeria and 24 in Cameroon, according to officials.
Buhari, making his first trip to the United States since being elected in March, blamed what is often called the “Leahy law” – human rights legislation introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. This law originally focused on U.S. assistance to Colombia’s armed forces but has gradually been expanded to prohibit U.S. taxpayer funds from being given to any foreign military units that have been involved in gross human rights violations.
Buhari told an audience at the U.S. Institute of Peace that the “blanket application of the Leahy law by the United States on the grounds of unproven allegations of human rights violations leveled against our forces has denied us access to appropriate strategic weapons to prosecute the war against the insurgents.”
“Unwittingly – and I dare say unintentionally – the application of the Leahy law … has aided and abetted the Boko Haram terrorists in the prosecution of its extremist ideology and hate, the indiscriminate killings and maiming of civilians, the raping of women and girls and other heinous crimes,” he added. “I know the American people cannot support any group engaged in these crimes.”
It is true that Nigeria’s military has been accused of human rights violations on several occasions. Earlier this year, an Amnesty International report said Nigerian troops had caused the deaths of more than 8,000 civilians since 2009. “Former detainees and senior military sources described how detainees were regularly tortured to death – hung on poles over fires, tossed into deep pits or interrogated using electric batons,” the report said, naming a number of Nigerian officers who it said should be investigated.
It is also true that concerns about human rights abuses by the Nigerian military have complicated U.S. involvement in the fight against Boko Haram. Last year, the United States blocked a sale of attack helicopters from Israel to Nigeria. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the sale was canceled partly because of “concerns about the Nigerian military’s protection of civilians when conducting military operations.” As one senior U.S. official told The Post: “The way you help a struggling military to get better is to roll up your sleeves and help, but it doesn’t mean you turn a blind eye to the bad stuff.”
However, Buhari’s comments appeared to misinterpret the Leahy law. Lora Lumpe, a senior policy analyst at Open Society Foundation’s Washington office, explained that the law can prohibit funding only from the U.S. Treasury, and, as such, the sale of arms and technology is not included. “This law should help President Buhari in his effort to combat Boko Haram by helping ensure that Nigerian forces operate as professional soldiers and law officers and that they are seen as accountable to the law,” Lumpe added.
Buhari’s comments on Wednesday appeared to mark a turn from previous signs of a willingness to work within the bounds of the Leahy law and suggested that he is chafing at the U.S. restrictions. On Tuesday, he met with members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said the two sides discussed how to ensure “that onerous security assistance vetting is not an obstacle to greater U.S.-Nigeria cooperation.”
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