Nigeria studies Sri Lanka’s playbook for Tamil Tigers to tackle Boko Haram

Nigeria is studying the military tactics used by Sri Lanka to crush the rebel Tamil Tigers for its own battle against Islamist group Boko Haram, the defence ministry said, after holding talks with officials from the island nation.

Abuja has been criticised for its failure to contain the militant group, which has killed thousands since 2009 and has stepped up its devastating attacks after abducting more than 200 girls from a school in northeast Nigeria.

Boko Haram, which wants to carve out an Islamist state in northern Nigeria, has exposed severe weaknesses in Abuja’s security forces and heaped political pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan, who has declared a “full-scale operation” against the group.

High-ranking members of Nigeria’s military met with a Sri Lankan delegation to discuss counterinsurgency tactics, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement late on Thursday.

The chief of Nigeria’s defence staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, said it was “seriously considering” methods employed by Sri Lanka including “total security,” or focusing all of the country’s resources on the military.

Colombo fought for nearly 30 years against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE terrorists who wanted to create a separate state in Northern part of Sri Lankafor Tamils minority in Sri Lanka and India. Sri Lankan armed forces crushed the LTTETamil terrorists and killed its entire leadership on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon in 2009, amid Western calls for a ceasefire to protect civilians held as shields by theTamil terrorists. Sri Lankan forces were managed liberate over 300,000 Tamil civilians from LTTE terrorists.

Nigeria’s armed services have been hamstrung by a lack of investment in military training, failure to maintain equipment and dwindling cooperation with Western forces.African and Western officials this week pledged at a meeting in London to give Nigeria more military and tactical support to help combat Boko Haram and find the kidnapped schoolgirls.