Ceasefire with Islamist terrorists?

by Eze Eluchie

….And with incredulous haste, the Defense Spokesman, General Chris Olukolade, hurriedly announces an ‘immediate ceasefire’ with Boko Haram terrorists, without letting Nigerians or the world know what fire is being ceased? Perhaps we have some information that may assist the rest of the world also arrive at ‘ceasefire agreements’ with Al Shabaab, Al Qeida, Al Qeida in the Islamic Maghreb {AQIM} and the Islamic State!

Do these guys really know what they are dealing with?

Which of the objectives of Boko Haram as loquaciously announced by its purported ‘leader’, Shekarau, has been attained or conceded to? Creation of a Caliphate? Islamization of our population? Ethnic Cleansing? The continued decapitation of 'non-believers' in the Islamic faith? We need urgent answers!

Is this merely a ruse to allow terrorists to recoup their losses and rearm themselves for a more vicious assault?

What happens to the families whose loved ones have been bombed into early graves by the dastardly attacks of these terrorists?

What about justice for the countless Nigerians beheaded, raped and dismembered by these terrorists? Are their families and loved ones to cease their tears?

To spice up the ‘ceasefire’ deal, we are informed that the as at yet unspecified number of young female Chibok ‘abductees’ who have spent over 6 months with their ‘captors’, and whose very initial 'abduction' smirked of efforts at politicizing terror, will be released – and I guess we are all expected to jump up in shouts of Hurray?

What happens to the soldiers being court-marshaled as a result of actions during the war against terror and those already sentenced to death? Would there be a ‘ceasefire’ of such actions/sentences?

Considering the political developments surrounding the purported ‘ceasefire, particularly the recent declaration of intent to contest for the Presidency by an ex-military dictator who has severally expressed sympathy for BH terrorists (in one instance urging Federal authorities to refrain from killing the terrorists even in battle), one is forced to wonder if this is this merely a new chapter in the politicization of terror.

Are those superintending over our affairs really these naïve?

Ceasefires are always good to aid parties in conflicts work towards the resolution of armed conflicts, but some could in reality tantamount to capitulating to terror or outright defeat!    

Picture: The United Nations Headquarter complex, Abuja, destroyed in a Boko Haram suicide car bomb attack which left several persons, including United Nations staff members, dead.

A justiciable responsibility to prevent mass atrocities?

by Eze Eluchie

Can a responsibility to prevent mass atrocities be inferred from the coming into force of the Rome Statutes?

Can this responsibility be justiciable, such as to make it a crime punishable under International Law for a State not to act to prevent the commission mass atrocities?

For weeks, the world had known that the Syrian-Kurdish city of Kobani was within the sights of the Islamic State  (IS)militants and that when IS finally overruns Kobani, that mass killings and other atrocities tantamount to international crimes would be committed.

Yet, the authorities in Turkey, stood idly by, with its soldiers watching across unmarked borders, as the IS militants inched closer by the day to overrun Kobani. An overrun that is now leading to a massacre of monumental proportions.

What relevance is the much touted Responsibility to Protect (R2P) if there is no accountability for deliberate failure to stop the commission of mass atrocities, crimes against humanity and or genocides?



Picture: Mass exodus of Kurds from Kobani, Syria into Turkey to escape the advancing Islamic State 

The Echezona Project - Reuniting children displaced during Biafran Genocide

by Eze Eluchie

Efforts to trace the thousands of children ‘airlifted’ out of their places of origin in present day South Eastern Nigeria (during the Nigeria – Biafra War, 1967 - 1970) to places as diverse as Ivory Coast and Gabon is ongoing. At the end of the war, some of the ‘airlifted children’ were reunited with their families.

The Echezona Project seeks to identify and reunite children who were not returned to their kith and kin in South Eastern Nigeria.

The Echezona Project has already, via research undertaken in France, Nigeria, Ireland and the United States, sourced the identities and ‘points of departure’ of thousands of these children, collated details of the airlifts and will shortly be progressing to using trace technology to identify the families of the ‘airlifted children’ with the objective, where possible, to reunite these children with their filial relatives.

The Echezona Project Team, which I am a part of, is comprised of experts in diverse fields with myriad of experience, inclusive of persons who are part of ongoing efforts at using trace technology to reunite displaced peoples from the El Salvador Civil Wars and versed in ensuring accountability and closure for episodes of Genocide and Mass Atrocities

The right to an identity is an inalienable fundamental right. Let us strive to ensure Never Again!



Picture: Some of the Biafran children at point of airlift (usually, the only mark of name/origin is the little piece of white paper stuck unto the heads of the children as shown on one of the boys in the picture – this piece of paper would have dropped off by the time of arrival at the reception/refugee center)