Boko Haram: US HALTS ISRAELS AIDS TO NIGERIA

24 hours after US Secretary
of State, John Kerry met President Goodluck
Jonathan and former Head of State, General
Muhammadu Buhari, pledging his country’s
determination to work with Nigeria and other
countries to end activities of the Boko Haram
terrorists, the Israeli media, yesterday, revealed
that the US stopped Nigeria’s purchase of
Chinook military helicopters from Israel to fight
Boko Haram.
The sale/transfer of such aircraft required a
review by the US, to determine its “consistency
with US policy interests,” Obama administration
officials told The Jerusalem Post.
It quoted White House Assistant Press Secretary
and Director for Strategic Communications, Ned
Price, as saying that reviews of such kind take
place in the case of “any requests for one country
to transfer US-origin defence items to another
country.”
Nigeria’s largest arms purchase ever reported
was from Israel in 2007, in a deal with
Aeronautics Systems worth $260 million. That
company is Israeli, however, not American.
A single Chinook costs roughly $40 million to
produce.
Vanguard had reported the Nigerian military in the
past as saying that the country also resorted to
training its security personnel on terrorist
encounters in Russia and China because of the
refusal of the US administration to sell arms to
the government following “unfounded allegations
of human rights violations by our troops,” among
others.
However, the reports quoted unnamed Nigerian
officials as also saying that the US blocked the
order “after the office of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu had initially approved the purchase.”
Policy directives
US officials told The Jerusalem Post that such
transfers must be consistent with a policy
directive revised by President Barack Obama in
January, which outlines the criteria for
conventional weapons sales.
The policy requires US transfers, including Boeing
aircraft, to take into account “the risk that
significant change in the political or security
situation of the recipient country could lead to
inappropriate end-use” of the weapons.
While the Nigerian report suggests Abuja sought
the purchase of Boeing CH-47 Chinook
helicopters, Israel predominantly uses Sikorsky
CH-53 aircraft for missions involving heavy-lift
transport. Both Boeing and Sikorsky are American
companies.
Israeli laws concerning the export of arms is less
restrictive than those in the United States. Israel,
however, is a member of the United Nations
Register of Conventional Arms and, in 2009,
reported to the body that Israel, in practice,
refrains from transfers “where there is imminent
risk that arms might be internally diverted,
illegally proliferated and re-transferred, or fall into
the hands of terrorists or entities and states that
support or sponsor them.”
Sixteen nations operate the Chinook helicopter,
none of which are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Nigerian officials were reported as saying that
“we had even tried to procure arms from Russia
but this was stalled because of the Ukrainian
crisis, thus compelling us to turn to other nations
like Israel. But even this has been frustrated by
the US.”
They further said it was not just in the area of
arms procurement that US has been most
unhelpful, adding that contrary to its public
stance that it was assisting in the rescue
operations of the abducted Chibok secondary
school girls, it has done nothing significant to
help Nigeria in this regard.
Other intelligence sources also cited the fact that
the US has refused to share intelligence with
Nigerian security forces in a timely manner.
They said: “When we complained, they started
sharing some intelligence, but days after such
intelligence is of little value”.
Boko Haram gained notoriety around the world
after its militants kidnapped 276 students of
Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in
Borno State in April last year. The US sent
military personnel to assist in finding the girls.
Amnesty connection
In August, Amnesty International said it had
gathered video footage, images and testimonies
that “implicates the Nigerian military in war
crimes” which the Nigerian government
vehemently denied.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Nigeria
recently that the United States remains
committed to helping the government combat
Boko Haram.
“We are engaging with the Nigerian government at
all levels to identify areas of counter-terrorism
cooperation,” other state officials earlier said.
This was contrary to what the US ambassador to
Nigeria James Entwistle told reporters last
October while speaking on the refusal by his
country to sell high calibre weapons to Nigeria.
Entwistle told reporters that “the kind of question
that we have to ask is, let’s say we give certain
kinds of equipment to the Nigerian military and
that is then used in a way that affects the human
situation, if I approve that, I’m responsible for
that. We take that responsibility very seriously.”
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/boko-
haram-us-halts-israeli-aid-nigeria/