It’s been a little over a year since Our Lord appeared to Nigeria’s Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme to tell him that with the sword of the rosary, the terrorist group Boko Haram would be “gone” from his country and signs of the group’s unraveling are beginning to be seen.
The Associated Press (AP) is reporting on breaking news from the Nigerian military headquarters in Maidurguri where 76 starving Boko Haram fighters and their families have reportedly turned themselves into authorities. Desperate for food, the detainees claim that many more fighters want to surrender.
Authorities see this as a significant sign that their strategy of choking off the supply routes of the Islamic extremists is working.
Much of the credit can go to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari who vowed to stop Boko Haram upon taking office 10 months ago and has taken several steps to convince the people that he’s serious. In addition to replacing the leadership in the military and resupplying soldiers, he moved the headquarters for the fight against Boko Haram from the distant capital of Abuja to the heart of the insurgency in Maidurguri.
The tactics appear to be working. The group, which aligned itself with ISIS, had set up an Islamic caliphate in the northern part of the country but the military has since dislodged them, forcing the group to return to its earlier tactics of suicide bombings.
In addition to the latest group of surrendering fighters, dozens more insurgents turned themselves in in September and October last year after a promise from the government that those who gave themselves up voluntarily would be rehabilitated through a de-radicalization program.
As early as last spring, former captives of Boko Haram reported that the group was in disarray with soldiers desperate for guns and ammunition. Leaders were desperately trying to sell off their 700+ captives to raise money to buy weapons.
One of the group’s most heinous crimes was the 2014 kidnap of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok, most of whom were sold into slavery. To date, they are responsible for the killing of more than 20,000 people in a six-year-long campaign to establish a radical Islamic caliphate in the country.
But those plans seem to be unraveling, especially since late 2014 when Bishop Dashe experienced a vision of Our Lord while praying in his chapel in the Diocese of Maiduguri in the hard-hit Borno state. The Lord appeared to him and offered him a sword. When he reached to take it, the sword turned into a rosary. Jesus then told him three times: “Boko Haram is gone.”
“I didn’t need any prophet to give me the explanation,” the bishop said. “It was clear that with the rosary we would be able to expel Boko Haram.”
Since that time, Bishop Dashe has traveled throughout the country, exhorting the faithful to take up the “sword” of the rosary to defeat the radical group that has caused so much suffering and death in the country.
Although the group is a still a force to be reckoned with, the Lord has apparently decided that the reckoning will be soon – and it will be on His terms.
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