Adamu Musa remembers clearly the first Boko Haram offensive in which he took part. It was about a week after he\u2019d been abducted along with a dozen other boys in Gwoza when he was ordered to join a mission. He was to be part of a group of militants that would attack a nearby community and kidnap more fighters. Musa and the other young boys were tasked with chasing men who tried to escape.<\/p>\n
Before the assault, and all the others that Musa would later take part in, each of the boys was forced to take several tablets of Tramadol.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone took it before leaving the camp. Even if there was nothing else in the camp, there was always Tramadol,\u201d says Musa, who escaped from Boko Haram in the middle of the night over a year ago.<\/p>\n
Tramadol is undoubtedly the drug of choice for Boko Haram with several former militants reporting its widespread usage. Nigeria\u2019s anti-drug agency routinely intercepts hundreds of millions of tablets of the drug, much of it believed to be destined for the insurgency in the northeast. Tramadol is an opioid primarily used for pain relief, but when taken at higher doses it can produce similar effects to heroin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever we took Tramadol, nothing mattered to us anymore except what we were sent to do,\u201d says Musa. \u201cBecause it made us very high and very bold, it was impossible to go on a mission without taking it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opioid is also addictive. Aid workers in the region say Tramadol dependency is usually first on the list of problems faced by people who once lived under the Islamist militants.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not very easy to find anyone who lived in a Boko Haram camp without a problem of Tramadol addiction,\u201d says Jibrin Umar, a counsellor and social worker with Caprecon Development Foundation, which provides humanitarian and psychosocial support for Boko Haram survivors. \u201cIt was like food for those who were there. They took it every day and night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting hold of Tramadol
\nAccording to the UN, West and Central Africa \u2013 the regions within reach of the militants \u2013 now account for 87% of all pharmaceutical opioids seized globally. This trend is largely driven by the rising use of Tramadol, which is mostly imported from South Asia, particularly India.<\/p>\n
In sourcing huge quantities of the opioid, Boko Haram benefits from lax regulation and may obtain the drug from several sources. Nigeria shares a porous border with Benin, the second-largest recipient of Indian Tramadol after the US. Meanwhile, it is possible that international shipments \u2013 such as the half-billion tablets seized by customs officials at a port in Lagos last November \u2013 end up travelling to the north-east.<\/p>\n
Tramadol, whose sale often lacks proper checks by Nigerian authorities, can also be bought in local pharmacies for as little as $0.30 for a strip of ten tablets. The drug mostly sells in dosages of up to 225mg, more than double the legal limit in most countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to those who escaped Boko Haram, agents working for the group sometimes get the drug from local pharmacies,\u201d says Umar. \u201cAlthough the drug is only supposed to be sold on prescription, some pharmacies sell it freely.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they don\u2019t have it\u2026\u201d
\nBoko Haram\u2019s heavy use of Tramadol to drug its fighters is deeply worrying, and some believe it could account for the ruthlessness of certain attacks. However, the group\u2019s reliance on the opioid also presents a weakness that could be targeted. Stopping the flow of Tramadol would not end the war or solve its root causes, but experts suggest it could cripple militants\u2019 ability to carry out assaults as before.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boldness [of Boko Haram] to attack mostly comes from the effect of the drug in their system,\u201d says Dr Bala Chabiya, an anaesthesiologist and co-founder of the Hands of Love Organisation, which works with victims. \u201cIf they don\u2019t have it, they are less likely to be that brutal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nigerian government is reluctant to outright ban Tramadol given its legitimate usage as a painkiller, but it has had some success in detecting and seizing illegal shipments of the drug. In response, though, criminal gangs continue to devise new ways of beating security checks and find new smuggling routes, some of which are partly controlled by Boko Haram.<\/p>\n
To meaningfully stop the illicit trade, Nigeria would have to refocus its efforts both at home and abroad. Internationally, it would have to work more closely with other governments, particularly those of its neighbours, to find ways of tracing and controlling the flow of drugs into the country. And domestically, it would have to enhance regulation and enforcement, including by ensuring pharmacies receive prescriptions before selling the opioid.<\/p>\n
This might seem a roundabout way to tackle an insurgency that has worn on for a decade and continues to launch deadly attacks, but its former fighters suggest such a strategy could be key.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo fighter ever thought of going out without having a substance like Tramadol,\u201d says Musa. \u201cIf you take Tramadol away, you make Boko Haram weak.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Adamu Musa remembers clearly the first Boko Haram offensive in which he took part. It was about a week after he\u2019d been abducted along with a dozen other boys in Gwoza when he was ordered to join a mission. He was to be part of a group of militants that would attack a nearby community […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":6542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[168,45,231,180],"class_list":["post-6539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-attack","tag-boko-haram","tag-military","tag-terrorist"],"yoast_head":"\n