Boko Haram: US To Sponsor 24-Hour TV Channel In Northern Nigeria
Category: Boko Haram News
WASHINGTON — The State Department is financing a new 24-hour
satellite television channel in the turbulent northern region of Nigeria
that American officials say is crucial to countering the extremism of
radical groups such as Boko Haram. The move signals a ramping up of
American counterinsurgency efforts to directly challenge the terrorist
group, which abducted nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls in April.
State Department officials acknowledged that setting up an
American-supported channel could prove challenging in a region where
massacres, bombings and shootings by Boko Haram are common, and where
the American government and Western educational programs are far from
popular. The group has been known to attack media organizations in
Nigeria.
The new television channel, to be called Arewa24 — arewa means north
in the Hausa language — is financed by the State Department’s Bureau of
Counterterrorism, and it is expected to cost about $6 million. State
Department officials would discuss the program only on the condition of
anonymity, and offered sparse information about it. But details have
emerged in publicly available contracting documents and in interviews
with people familiar with the effort.
The project was started last year and is run in Nigeria by Equal
Access International, a San Francisco-based government contractor that
has managed media programs sponsored by the State Department in Yemen
and Pakistan that encourage youth participation in politics, in addition
to countering Islamist extremism. Work on the project is nearing
completion, but broadcasts have not yet begun.
State Department officials insisted that the Nigerian government was
aware of the television project, and that it had not planned to hide
American support for the program, which has not been previously
disclosed. “However, U.S. sponsorship will not be advertised or
promoted,” a State Department official said.
The goal of the channel is to provide original content, including
comedies and children’s programs that will be created, developed and
produced by Nigerians. State Department officials said they hoped to
provide an alternative to the violent propaganda and recruitment efforts
of Boko Haram.
Many foreign policy experts, while applauding State Department
programs to counter the efforts of Boko Haram and other extremist
groups, said the new satellite project faced several challenges in a
region with low levels of infrastructure, public services, literacy and
security.
Credits: New York Times
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