A wild-eyed Nigerian soldier looks into the camera: “We don’t have adequate weapons,” he says. “We can’t just be wasting our lives.” Nigerian opposition activists, who have circulated the video widely, say it shows soldiers fleeing an offensive by Boko Haram, the bloodthirsty jihadists terrorising north-eastern Nigeria, in December. Army officials say the footage is from 2014, the nadir of their fight against the militants. Few believe the official line.
Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president, came to power in 2015 promising to defeat Boko Haram. His inauguration was followed by military success. Insurgents were expelled from towns they had captured and forced into the bush. But this was followed by three years of stalemate that is now beginning to look like defeat.
