Boko Haram Attacks Become More Intense
ROMANS: The Nigerian army today repelled an attack by Boko Haram, killing 40 of those militants. This is a very rare victory against the terrorists. It happened in the same area from which hundreds of schoolgirls were abducted last year. They're still gone. Boko Haram's attacks in Nigeria are becoming more intense, they are ruthless, they are indiscriminate. And officials are concerned they're not so much about tactics anymore. They think Boko Haram kills because it can. Joining me is Ricardo Rene Laremont, professor and author. Professor Laremont, what is Boko Haram's endgame here? It seems as though it was Sharia law, a rejection of Western values and Western education. But it seems as though this whole tactic has intensified into killing for killing's sake.</s>RICARDO RENE LAREMONT, PROFESSOR & AUTHOR: Well, it's a situation analogous to what we find with is in Iraq. In the sense that essentially northern Nigeria is being sectioned off from Nigeria itself. So where now there isn't an Iraq as we knew it or Syria as we knew it, we do not have a flir Nigeria as we knew it. They are essentially establishing their own sovereignty over the northeastern part of the country and the government isn't doing much about it.</s>ROMANS: The government isn't doing much about it at all, quite frankly. I mean, there were able to repeal or kill 40 militants today, a rare victory. The president, who is running for reelection, didn't even mention the killing of 2,000 people in his country by Boko Haram just a week ago in the last week. Will there be more of a response from the international community? Will there be more response from the Nigerian army?</s>LAREMONT: Well, the question you have to ask yourself is, why has the president not addressed the question in the north? It's really a situation that emerges from Nigeria's transition to democracy. The civilian president does not want to empower the military because he fears that if he were to give them the resources that were required, they would threaten the civilian government itself. So it's really quite logical why he's not supporting the government. And in this context, the army does not have the resources with which to confront Boko Haram. So it isn't a question of whether he doesn't want to do it. There is a logic behind why he is not supporting the military.</s>ROMANS: Yet, the rest of us look at this and say, girls gone, missing, sold into marriage, killed. We're told, witnesses saying, young girls as young as 10 being used as suicide bombers, boys being murdered. What is the West supposed to do? We have seen genocide in Africa before where the West didn't do enough about it and really regretted it later on. Should the international community be doing something?</s>LAREMONT: We need to be witnesses for the right stances to be taken in Nigeria. However, what we have learned from the Iraqi and the Syrian experiences is that we cannot go in it alone. We first have to understand the logic of the civilian president and then try to reorient his thinking so that he becomes the president of the entire country rather than a president that is entirely preoccupied with the center and the south of the country. Essentially, from my perspective, he has written off the north because he doesn't think it's necessary for him to govern there.</s>ROMANS: Why do you think there has been such an international response and solidarity with France and terrorism in Paris and this receives relatively less attention?</s>LAREMONT: It gets comparatively less attention because Paris is Paris, and Paris is a center of media. Now, in the northeastern part of Nigeria, this is essentially a no-go zone. Consequently, it is not going to get the attention that Paris would get. But nonetheless, given how we were not present at the moment of the Rwanda conflict and we acted belatedly in other crises in Africa, it is imperative upon the American electorate and media to keep attention on this issue because hundreds, indeed, thousands of ordinary Nigerians are suffering.</s>ROMANS: Professor Ricardo Rene Laremont, thank you so much for your expertise today. You can help the child victims of the violence in Nigeria. Head to our website, CNN.com/impact. Thank you for joining us @THISHOUR. "LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts right now.