Finally, International Intelligence Group to Help Fight Boko Haram

Few hours after resumption of work by the new Minister of Defence, General Aliyu Gusau (rtd), there are strong signals that discreet moves are on to conscript what a top security source called “dark forces within Western intelligence agencies” to tame insurgency in Northeastern Nigeria.

Citing top intelligence briefings, the source hinted that the Boko Haram conflict demands direct collaboration with covert units of Western intelligence agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency, M15, including security services of Germany, France, Canada and other Western capitals.

“Beyond the militant salafists, insurgency is also a dirty war, a proxy war woven around Western interests. We suspect that when and if Western interests are threatened, solution cannot be found unless they (Western services) are also integrated,” the official said.

Sunday Tribune was told that “dirty units exist conducting covert operations all over the world and the experience from the Syrian civil war confirms that such forces operate.

“The new direction, beyond the current strategies, is to link up with external intelligence services. We check where we are hurting Western interests in return for services of those discreet forces,” the source said.

Investigations, however, showed that the new Defence Minister, with his extensive background in intelligence operations within and outside the country, is assumed to be on top of the game. Checks showed that on the African continent, General Gusau is one of the four top security czars well respected by Western intelligence agencies from Western Europe to North America.

Sources close to Gusau told Sunday Tribune that “a three-prong approach is on the table,” even as he refused to explain the details.

“We are deploying all needed contacts and networks to tame the insurgents,” he said.