Revolutionary Warfare? Assessing the Character of Competing Factions within the Boko Haram Insurgency

ABSTRACT

The respective politico-military characters of the competing factions within the Boko Haram insurgency have not received as much academic attention as other features of the Boko Haram phenomenon. This article uses the concept of “revolutionary warfare” to examine and compare the two main factions. Traditionally applied to Marxist movements, this conceptualization is increasingly associated with violent Jihadist groups who combine a revolutionary ideology with a strategy based on winning popular support and a growing ability to militarily beat conventional forces. It argues that the “Islamic State West Africa Province” faction has adopted a revolutionary warfare approach based on increasingly sophisticated semi-conventional warfare and a simultaneous drive to win popular support. The Jama’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihad faction, while equally revolutionary in its goals, appears, for doctrinal reasons and due to pressure from the military, to be operating in contrast to key revolutionarywarfare precepts.

Edward Stoddard (2019): Revolutionary Warfare? Assessing the Character of Competing Factions within the Boko Haram Insurgency, African Security, DOI: 10.1080/19392206.2019.1668632

Former Cruz aides working for Cameroon

FORMER CRUZ AIDES WILL WORK FOR CAMEROON: Two former aides to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have signed on to represent Cameroon’s government in Washington despite recent allegations of serious human rights abuses by the government. David Polyansky, Cruz’s former chief of staff; Catherine Frazier, another former Cruz aide; and Jimmy Soni, a former Huffington Post managing editor who later worked for former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, will advise Cameroon’s government on public relations. They’ll promote a “positive and favorable image” of Cameroon’s government through digital ads and “by placing targeted op eds in conservative-oriented outlets in order to foster a robust and growing partnership narrative into the future,” according to a contract filed with the Justice Department.

— Cameroon has found itself saddled with a less-than-positive-and-favorable image in recent months. The Trump administration has stopped providing as much military aid to Cameroon’s government because of what Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the head of United States Africa Command, described in congressional testimony in February as the “alleged atrocities” it had committed. Mausi SegunHuman Rights Watch’s executive director for Africa, wrote last month that Cameroon’s government had responded to separatist threats by “burning hundreds of homes, killing civilians, and detaining and torturing alleged separatists in a gendarme-run prison in the capital, Yaoundé.”

— There’s a long history, of course, of Washington lobbyists and public relations hands representing governments accused of committing atrocities, dating back to Paul Manafort’s work for Ferdinand Marcos, the infamous Filipino dictator. Polyansky, Frazier and Soni are representing Cameroon through Clout Public Affairs, a division of Axiom Strategies, a consulting firm run by Jeff Roe, who managed Cruz’s presidential campaign. Cameroon also retains Squire Patton Boggs to lobby on its behalf.

— Asked about the Cameroonian government’s human rights record, Clout defended its work. “Clout is pleased to be working with Cameroon to highlight the strong and developing relationship between our two countries,” the firm said in a statement. The firm noted that Cameroon had “been a longtime partner to U.S. military operations in Africa, and serves as a key ally in the United States’ effort to combat the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, which has for far too long victimized and ravaged innocent civilians in the region.” The contract is worth $55,000 a month.

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