VOA标准英语2013--Nigeria Launches Airstrikes Against Militants

（单词翻译）

Nigeria Launches Airstrikes Against Militants¹

Declaring a state of emergency in three northeastern states Tuesday, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ordered security forces to take all necessary action.

?"Whoever they may be, wherever they may go, we will hunt them down, we will fish them out, and we will bring them to justice," he said. "No matter what it takes, we will win this war against terror."

Nigerian troops are already part of the international force currently fighting Islamist insurgents² in Mali.

Past experience suggests it will be difficult to eradicate³ the Boko Haram insurgency⁴ on Nigerian territory, said Elizabeth Connelly, assistant head of the Africa Program at London-based policy institute Chatham House.

"It is not a change in strategy. It is an intensification⁵ of strategy," she said. "And there have been a lot of complaints about the significant use of force in the past and that it hasn't actually achieved anything. In fact you've seen a strengthening of Boko Haram."

Connelly said the military risks being drawn⁶ into a long campaign against an elusive⁷ target.

"These states that are under the state of emergency all border Nigeria's neighbors - Chad, Cameroon, Niger - and that goes back to the question of sustainability and effectiveness. Is it possible that members [of Boko Haram] might simply be displaced and return?"

The north of Nigeria has been neglected for too long by central government, said Virginia Comolli, a Nigeria analyst⁸ at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"Because things have been neglected and downplayed for so long it also means that the situation has degenerated⁹ so much, that now a military component¹⁰ to the strategy is inevitable," she said.

Comolli said the high youth unemployment in northern cities like Kano acts as fertile ground for extremism.

"They are likely to remain on the streets, carry on as beggars because that's also what they do during their so-called education," she added. "And some of them join criminal groups and perhaps also more extremist groups. Not so much because they espouse¹¹ the extreme ideology¹² but because these groups may offer them the chance to channel their grievances¹³ and also to make some money."

Since an escalation¹⁴ in attacks in 2009, Boko Haram has targeted Christian¹⁵ churches and villages. There have been reprisal¹⁶ attacks on Muslims and allegations of abuses by the military. Again, Elizabeth Connelly of Chatham House.

"They are very afraid of Boko Haram and Boko Haram-related violence," said Connelly. "But they're also very afraid of the joint¹⁷ task force that is present in the northeast of Nigeria. And further to these abuses of course it's economic matters, people just cannot go about their daily lives."

The state of emergency in the northeast lasts for six months.  Analysts say the military operation could take much longer.